MANILA, PHILIPPINES (9 March 2021) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has generally endorsed a new country partnership strategy (CPS) for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) covering 2021–2025 to support government efforts to achieve high-quality, green development. This CPS will be central in reorienting ADB’s engagement in the PRC as the country transits to high-income status and approaches graduation from ADB’s assistance.
ADB operations in the PRC will focus on three interrelated strategic priorities: environmentally sustainable development, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and an aging society and health security.
“ADB is targeting areas where it can add value through innovative demonstration projects that generate regional public goods, knowledge, and best practices for replication,” said ADB’s Country Director in the PRC Yolanda Fernandez Lommen. “Close cooperation between sovereign and nonsovereign operations will be at the core of this approach, and synergies between ADB’s operational and knowledge departments will be used to help develop solutions to complex issues.”
ADB proposes total lending commitments in the country of $7.0 billion to $7.5 billion for 2021–2025 for sovereign operations, compared with $9.0 billion in 2016–2020, with an expected declining trend toward the end of the CPS. Lending levels may fluctuate up and down from year to year, subject to resource availability and project readiness. Nonsovereign operations will remain stable at about $450 million per year.
Knowledge will be central to ADB’s operations under the CPS. A country knowledge plan provides a strategic approach for a knowledge-based program to meet the PRC’s knowledge needs and share its development lessons with other ADB developing members.
Following many years of high growth, the PRC has developed modern physical and economic infrastructure, achieved upper middle-income status, and emerged as the world’s second-largest economy. The country announced that it had eradicated extreme poverty in November 2020. But rapid growth has also given rise to new development challenges, including social inequality, environmental degradation and pollution, a rapidly aging society, and health security concerns.
The CPS recognizes that these and other challenges need to be addressed by strengthened social and economic institutions, and will guide ADB engagement with the PRC to help them close the gaps in key institutions and steadily approach to graduation from ADB’s assistance.
The CPS is aligned with key government development priorities under the PRC’s upcoming 14th Five-Year Plan. These include emphasis on natural resource management to combat climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem damage; low-carbon development; social inclusion in the context of population aging; and regional health security. Support for global and regional public goods will be a key area of partnership between the PRC and ADB in the coming years.
At the midterm of CPS implementation, ADB will review the graduation assessment to evaluate the PRC’s progress against key indices and other performance metrics at the sector and thematic level.
ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.
