Closing remarks by Ahmed M. Saeed, ADB Vice-President, Operations 2, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific, at the Infrastructure Asia-ADB High-Level Discussion: Catalyzing Private Capital into Clean Energy in Southeast Asia, as a Post COVID-19 Recovery Strategy, 29 May 2020
Let me start by thanking Minister Indranee Rajah for joining us at this webinar and making some very insightful points. We are aligned with you in these messages Madam Minister and hope to work together in finding solutions.
This is clearly an absolutely unprecedented time for people and governments and indeed the fiscal pressures as also just the stresses of managing a myriad bunch of responses to the pandemic must be severe on governments across the region.
Our ADB estimates for COVID-19’s impact already estimates a negative economic impact at between $5.8 trillion to $8.8 trillion (6.4% to 9.7% of global GDP), globally, excluding the impact of policy measures. This is already more than double the World Bank’s 16 April 2020 estimate of a 2%–4% decline in global GDP, and higher than the IMF’s April 2020 World Economic Outlook estimate of 6.3% decline in global GDP.
Which is what makes this webinar – the first under the ADB collaboration with Infrastructure Asia – so critical. For sustainable development in our region – and clean energy is right at the core of that – the private sector with its capital, technologies, implementation and management efficiencies, must be a big part of all economic recovery strategies.
And hence we – ADB, governments and other multilaterals - need to do whatever we can to best mitigate the heightened risk perception amongst private sector developers, funds and banks, and even the capital markets. This webinar has produced ideas and suggestions and I take note of these for further discussion with my Southeast Department colleagues as well as with ASEAN region governments.
ADB certainly has the tools, people and relationships in the region to work with governments and develop innovative and green finance instruments for some of the derisking approaches suggested today. I already see strong interest in seeking support from the ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance facility as well as our Energy team’s efforts to develop new renewable energy projects such as they did in Cambodia, across the region.
And finally, I am sure our invaluable partnership with Singapore, through both our new office there as well as the Infrastructure Asia collaboration, will be a key base for developing and testing out many of the innovative finance approaches and ideas mentioned here today. Thank you.
Speaker
