ТАШКЕНТ, УЗБЕКИСТАН (6 апреля 2023 г.) — Азиатский банк развития (АБР) и компания ОАО «Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company» (Масдар) подписали 3 займа на строительство трех солнечных электростанций в Сурхандарьинской (Шерабаде), Самаркандской и Джизакской областях Узбекистана. Вместе эти электростанции смогут генерировать 897 МВт, что на сегодняшний день сделает их крупнейшим проектом в сфере солнечной энергитики в регионе.
Пакет финансирования состоит из 3 займов из обычных капитальных ресурсов АБР на сумму 36,7 млн. долларов США для Шерабада, 13,5 млн. долларов США для Самарканда и 14,3 млн. долларов США для Джизакской электростанции. Кроме того, АБР мобилизовал необходимый частный институциональный капитал для трех электростанций. Это было достигнуто за счет организации агрегации синдицированного займа «B» на сумму 37,5 млн. долларов США. Участником займа «B» является «ILX Fund I» - базирующийся в Амстердаме частный кредитный фонд развивающихся рынков, ориентированный на ЦУР.
АБР софинансирует вышеназванные проекты с Азиатским банком инфраструктурных инвестиций, Европейским банком реконструкции и развития и Европейским инвестиционным банком в качестве параллельных кредиторов.
«Узбекистан обладает огромным потенциалом для производства чистой энергии за счет своих обширных солнечных и ветровых ресурсов, и финансирование АБР играет значительную роль на пути Узбекистана к углеродно-нейтральной экономике. АБР стремится создать благоприятную среду с помощью этих трансформационных проектов», - сказала Генеральный директор Департамента АБР по операциям с частным сектором Сюзанн Габури. «Являясь климатическим банком Азии, АБР увеличил свои цели по климатическому финансированию, чтобы способствовать значимой декарбонизации и расширению использования возобновляемых источников энергии в энергетическом секторе. Наше участие помогло привлечь значительный акционерный капитал от надежного спонсора и мобилизовать институциональный капитал, который послужит вотумом доверия для будущих проектов в секторе возобновляемых источников энергии Узбекистана».
Разработка самого крупного из трех проектов, электростанции в Шерабаде, велась АБР путем предоставления консультативных услуг в рамках ГЧП для правительства Узбекистана, которые включали в себя содействии в подготовке, структурировании и успешном проведении тендера. АБР также предоставит частичную кредитную гарантию на сумму 9,1 млн. долларов США для поддержки обязательств по оплате тарифов покупателя электроэнергии - Национальных электрических сетей Узбекистана. Три электростанции компенсируют свыше 1 млн. метрических тонн выбросов в эквиваленте двуокиси углерода в год и обеспечивать электроэнергией более одного миллиона домохозяйств.
«Достижение этой вехи для всех трех проектов — это момент гордости для Масдар и ключевой этап на пути Узбекистана к чистой энергии. Масдар уже играет значительную роль в поддержке амбициозных целей правительства Узбекистана в области возобновляемых источников энергии, и мы с нетерпением ожидаем продолжения расширения нашего портфеля проектов на этом ключевом стратегическом рынке», — сказал главный финансовый директор Масдар Найл Ханниган. «Это достижение также было бы невозможным без поддержки правительства Узбекистана, а также наших финансовых партнеров, которые продемонстрировали непоколебимую приверженность обеспечению устойчивого экономического роста для народа Узбекистана».
Солнечные электростанции повысят доступность надежной и чистой энергии для всех жителей Узбекистана, включая домохозяйства и предприятия. Кроме того, заемщик взял на себя обязательство реализовать гендерный план действий, который улучшит положение женщин в сфере энергетики, облегчит их доступ к рабочим местам и экономическим возможностям в переходе Узбекистана к чистой энергетике, а также поощрит всеобщее участие женщин в секторе возобновляемых источников энергии.
Компания Масдар является мировым лидером в области возобновляемых источников энергии, работает более чем в 40 странах и инвестировала в проекты общей мощностью свыше 20 гигаватт (ГВт), что достаточно для обеспечения электроэнергией 5,25 миллионов домов. Компания планирует к 2030 году увеличить совокупную мощность портфеля не менее 100 ГВт.
АБР привержен достижению процветающей, всеобъемлющей, стабильной и устойчивой Азии и Тихого океана, продолжая при этом свои усилия по искоренению крайней нищеты. АБР основан в 1966 году, его членами являются 68 стран, 49 из которых находятся в регионе.
ADB Signs $44.2 Million Blue Loan with ALBA to Reduce Ocean Plastic Waste in Indonesia
JAKARTA, INDONESIA (6 June 2023) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $44.2 million blue loan with PT ALBA Tridi Plastics Recycling Indonesia, an ALBA Group Asia company, to establish a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling facility in Central Java.
ADB and the Leading Asia's Private Infrastructure Fund (LEAP) will each provide $22.1 million in funding for the project. Blue loans are financing instruments that aim to safeguard access to clean water, protect underwater environments, and invest in a sustainable water economy.
ADB Records $11.4 Billion in Cofinancing, Focused on Resilience Against Economic Shocks
The financing partners of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) committed $11.4 billion in cofinancing of ADB projects in 2022 to help build the resilience of developing member countries and enable them to withstand economic shocks, according to the Partnership Report 2022: Driving Growth, Boosting Resilience.
ADB Helps Launch Vocational Education Project in PNG
ADB and the governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea today launched a cofinanced project to improve the country’s technical and vocational education and training program.
ADB to Focus on Robust, Climate-Resilient, and Inclusive Growth in India
ADB has launched a new country partnership strategy for India with a focus on deepening its engagement with the country and supporting India’s drive for robust, climate-resilient, and inclusive growth.
ТОШКЕНТ, ЎЗБЕКИСТОН (2023-йил 6-апрел) — Осиё тараққиёт банки (ОТБ) ва “Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company” ОАЖ (Масдар) компанияси Ўзбекистоннинг Сурхондарё (Шеробод), Самарқанд ва Жиззах вилоятларида учта қуёш электр станциясини қуриш учун 3 та қарз шартномасини имзоладилар. Ушбу станциялар биргаликда 897 МВт электр энергиясини ишлаб чиқариш қувватига эга бўладилар ва бу уларни бугунги кунгача минтақадаги энг йирик қуёш энергияси лойиҳасига айлантиради.
Молиялаштириш пакети Шеробод учун 36,7 миллион АҚШ доллари, Самарқанд учун 13,5 миллион АҚШ доллари ва Жиззах электр станцияси учун 14,3 миллион АҚШ доллари миқдорида ОТБнинг оддий капитал ресурсларидан ажратиладиган 3 та қарздан иборат. Бундан ташқари, ОТБ учта электр станцияси учун зарур хусусий институционал капитални жалб қилди. Бунга 37,5 миллион АҚШ доллари миқдоридаги “B” синдикатланган қарзини жамлашни ташкил этиш орқали эришилди. Амстердамда жойлашган барқарор ривожланиш мақсадларига йўналтирилган ривожланаётган бозорларнинг хусусий кредит жамғармаси "ILX Fund I" "B" кредитнинг иштирокчисидир.
ОТБ юқорида қайд этилган лойиҳаларни параллел кредитор сифатида Осиё инфратузилма инвестициялари банки, Европа тикланиш ва тараққиёт банки ва Европа инвестиция банки билан биргаликда молиялаштирмоқда.
“Ўзбекистон ўзининг ўлкан қуёш ва шамол ресурсларидан тоза энергия ишлаб чиқариш бўйича ўлкан салоҳиятга эга ва ОТБнинг молиялаштириши Ўбекистоннинг углероддан холи иқтисодиёт сари йўлида муҳим рол ўйнайди. ОТБ ушбу трансформацион лойиҳалар орқали қулай муҳит яратишга интилмоқда”, деди ОТБнинг Хусусий сектор билан операциялар департаменти Бош директори Сюзан Габури. “Осиёнинг иқлим банки сифатида ОТБ мазмунли декарбонизация ва энергетика соҳасида қайта тикланадиган энергиядан фойдаланишни кенгайтириш учун иқлимни молиялаштириш мақсадларини оширди. Бизнинг иштирокимиз ишончли ҳомийдан катта миқдорда акционер капитални ва институционал капитални жалб қилишга ёрдам берди ва бу Ўзбекистоннинг қайта тикланадиган энергетика соҳасидаги келажакдаги лойиҳалари учун ишонч овози бўлиб хизмат қилади”.
Учта лойиҳадан энг йириги бўлмиш Шеробод электр станцияси лойиҳасини ишлаб чиқиш ОТБ томонидан Ўзбекистон ҳукуматига ДХШ доирасида маслаҳат хизматларини тақдим этиш орқали олиб борилди ва бунда тендерни тайёрлаш, тизимлаш ва муваффақиятли якунлашда ёрдам тақдим этилди. Бундан ташқари ОТБ электр энергияси харидори бўлмиш “Ўзбекистон миллий электр тармоқлари” акциядорлик жамиятининг тарифларни тўлаш мажбуриятларини қўллаб-қувватлаш учун 9,1 миллион АҚШ доллари миқдорида қисман кредит кафолати тақдим этади. Учта электр станцияси йилига 1 миллион тоннадан ортиқ карбонат ангидрид эквивалентини қоплайди ва бир миллиондан ортиқ уй хўжаликларини электр энергияси билан таъминлайди.
“Ҳар учала лойиҳа бўйича ушбу муҳим босқичга эришиш Масдар учун фахр лаҳзаси ва Ўзбекистоннинг тоза энергия йўлидаги муҳим босқичдир. Масдар Ўзбекистон ҳукуматининг қайта тикланадиган энергия манбалари бўйича ўлкан мақсадларини қўллаб-қувватлашда аллақачон муҳим рол ўйнамоқда ва биз ушбу муҳим стратегик бозорда лойиҳалар портфелини кенгайтиришда давом этишни интиқлик билан кутмоқдамиз”, - деди Масдар бош молия директори Найл Ханниган. “Бу ютуқни Ўзбекистон ҳукумати, шунингдек, Ўзбекистон халқи учун барқарор иқтисодий ўсишни таъминлаш бўйича қатъий содиқлигини намойиш қилган молиявий ҳамкорларимиз кўмагисиз ҳам амалга ошириб бўлмас эди”. Қуёш электр станциялари Ўзбекистоннинг барча аҳолиси, жумладан, уй хўжаликлари ва корхоналар учун ишончли ва тоза энергиядан фойдаланиш имкониятини оширади. Бундан ташқари, қарз олувчи энергетика соҳасида аёлларнинг мавқеини яхшилаш, уларнинг Ўзбекистоннинг тоза энергияга ўтиш даврида иш ўринлари ва иқтисодий имкониятлардан фойдаланишини осонлаштирадиган ҳамда қайта тикланувчи энергия соҳасида аёлларнинг кенг миқёсли иштирокини рағбатлантирадиган гендер чоралар режасини амалга ошириш мажбуриятини олди.
Масдар қайта тикланадиган энергия бўйича жаҳон етакчиси бўлиб, 40 дан ортиқ мамлакатларда фаолият юритади ва 5,25 миллион уйни электр энергияси билан таъминлаш имконини берадиган умумий қуввати 20 гигаваттдан (ГВт) ортиқ бўлган лойиҳаларга сармоя киритган. Компания 2030 йилгача портфелнинг умумий қувватини камида 100 ГВт га оширишни режалаштирмоқда.
ОТБ ўта қашшоқликка барҳам бериш бўйича саъй-ҳаракатларини давом эттириб, ривожланган, кенг қамровли ва барқарор Осиё ва Тинч океани минтақасига эришишга интилади. ОТБ 1966 йилда ташкил этилган бўлиб, унга 68 мамлакат аъзо бўлган. Уларнинг 49 таси минтақада жойлашган.
ADB Signs $44.2 Million Blue Loan with ALBA to Reduce Ocean Plastic Waste in Indonesia
JAKARTA, INDONESIA (6 June 2023) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $44.2 million blue loan with PT ALBA Tridi Plastics Recycling Indonesia, an ALBA Group Asia company, to establish a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling facility in Central Java.
ADB and the Leading Asia's Private Infrastructure Fund (LEAP) will each provide $22.1 million in funding for the project. Blue loans are financing instruments that aim to safeguard access to clean water, protect underwater environments, and invest in a sustainable water economy.
ADB Records $11.4 Billion in Cofinancing, Focused on Resilience Against Economic Shocks
The financing partners of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) committed $11.4 billion in cofinancing of ADB projects in 2022 to help build the resilience of developing member countries and enable them to withstand economic shocks, according to the Partnership Report 2022: Driving Growth, Boosting Resilience.
ADB Helps Launch Vocational Education Project in PNG
ADB and the governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea today launched a cofinanced project to improve the country’s technical and vocational education and training program.
ADB to Focus on Robust, Climate-Resilient, and Inclusive Growth in India
ADB has launched a new country partnership strategy for India with a focus on deepening its engagement with the country and supporting India’s drive for robust, climate-resilient, and inclusive growth.
This manual aims to support the implementation of grid-connected rooftop photovoltaic (PV) projects in Maldives.
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) economies must strengthen their positions in global value chains (GVCs) to bolster resilience against new challenges including future pandemics, geopolitical instability, and climate change, according to an Asian Development Bank report launched on 30 March at the Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS) 2023 in Bali, Indonesia.
The report ASEAN and Global Value Chains: Locking in Resilience and Sustainability surveys the challenges and opportunities facing GVCs—the cross-border networks that separate production stages from concept to consumption—in Southeast Asia as countries seek to build greater resilience and promote sustainable and green development.
Lead author and ADB Principal Economist for the Southeast Asia Regional Department James Villafuerte discusses the consequences of a business-as-usual scenario and what steps ASEAN needs to take to propel its GVCs towards net zero and decarbonization.
Just like the rest of the world, ASEAN member countries now face the fallout resulting from the current unpredictable geopolitical environment and continuing post-COVID-19 pandemic challenges. We’ve identified six mega-challenges confronting internationally shared production networks and value chains, which if ignored could upend ASEAN participation in GVCs, the benefits its economies enjoy, and efforts to develop long-term resilience against new shocks.
The first risk involves difficulty in accessing resources, intermediate inputs, and commodities needed for backward and forward GVC linkages. The second is a shortage of new skills required along value chain segments. The third involves constraints in accessing sufficient, reasonably priced energy owing to rising demand for resources, geopolitical disruptions, and country commitments under the Paris Agreement. The fourth risk is barriers to global and regional market access stemming from unilateral policies affecting trade and investment (including possible carbon taxes). Fifth is the tendency to disregard multilateral trading rules in favor of discretionary, power-based rules that create further fragmentation. And sixth the risk of interruptions in financial flows, rising prices, and issues with debt financing.
If the region maintains a business-as-usual approach given these challenges, GVC trade will continue to decline.
The best way to reduce these risks is to make GVCs more resilient to shocks, maintain an open trade and investment environment, strengthen regional cooperation across ASEAN and with other sub-regions, and transform firms participating in GVCs to become more green and to use greater technology as their workers shift to higher value added. This will promote more inclusive growth aligned with their net-zero emission commitments.
Post-pandemic, businesses also need to focus on how to move forward resiliently while promoting and transitioning to clean energy for their production and trade. They also should think of accounting for emissions produced while their products are consumed or disposed of.
The more agile the business sector, the faster the economic and trade recovery. Firms that adequately assess the risks associated with operations and invest in contingency plans do best. Diversifying GVCs rather than minimizing cost should be the key goal. Despite the cost implications and profit impact, those that have alternative supply sources and delivery routes—as well as contingency plans across the business—benefit. It boils down to business readiness aided by proper incentives, to complement or replace, if necessary, the “just-in-time” cost minimization model with the “just-in-case” risk exposure optimization model.
ASEAN policy makers also play a crucial role in helping their countries build resilience to external shocks by promoting a conducive business environment to maintain stable macroeconomic fundamentals, minimizing trade and labor disruption by fostering a transparent, clear, and fair regulatory environment, and being sensitive to the need for wider and more flexible financial and social protection.
According to the report, the estimated investment cost needed for ASEAN economies to meet their Nationally-Determined-Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement is $50.1 billion a year. The total cost, however, for the subregion if the NDCs are not met is six times that amount or $306 billion (this estimate is based on the social cost of carbon estimated at $185 per metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e), with ASEAN emissions at 1651.89 MtCO2e in 2020). By achieving the NDC targets, ASEAN could save $256 billion in potential social costs, five times the estimated GDP losses in a year.
In effect, the benefits far outweigh the cost of going green for the subregion. Asia, including ASEAN, emits more greenhouse gas (GHG) during production than other economies of similar size in the world. In terms of consumption, advanced economies remain on top. The reason Asia produces so much carbon emissions is its role as “factory of the world.” It has used its comparative advantages in global production and trade, reorganized around GVCs, to minimize overall costs related to production, transport, information, regulation, and other policies.
The traditional view is that increasing trade and deepening GVC linkages boost emissions and damage the environment. And in most cases, it does. However, it is still possible to say that trade, investment, and GVCs can be climate-smart as they consist of, for example, promoting trade in environment-friendly goods and services; digitalization of trade and transport procedures; and increasing investment in renewable energy. If left exclusively to market forces, it won’t happen automatically. But if incorporated into comprehensive policy packages that offer the right incentives to get the private sector on board, trade and investments in value chains can be done with a lesser effect on emissions.
The recent surge in energy and commodity prices and the planned 2026 implementation of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism – a carbon tariff on carbon intensive products such as cement and some electricity imported by the European Union – have made decarbonization of GVCs more urgent. ASEAN policy makers and businesses must act.
By investing in renewables and rolling out complementary polices that hasten their adoption and deployment, ASEAN economies can meet their NDC targets while cutting down their dependence on fossil fuels. As the capital cost of renewable technologies is expected to decline as they mature, the social costs saved become much bigger.
In the best-case scenario, policies that promote decarbonization also strengthen ASEAN GVCs’ long-term competitiveness and resilience. This involves a careful balancing act between maximizing potential benefits of ASEAN GVCs and regional value chains while minimizing the risks and costs of decarbonization including the social costs from job displacement—as some producers and businesses close their shops—as economies go green.
Recent geopolitical tensions and the string of external shocks since the COVID-19 outbreak continue to complicate economic decision-making in ASEAN. If these tensions persist, they could lead to further fragmented trade and contribute to more expensive energy and raw materials. These will raise trade costs further, limiting ASEAN’s benefits from its participation in global production networks.
But as the new normal evolves, it will also bring new opportunities for the region. ASEAN will need to reskill and upskill its labor force and raise its technological capabilities to exploit such opportunities. Importantly, building a sustainable, inclusive, and green economy will make ASEAN GVCs more competitive, improving its position in the international production network.
Moving forward, ASEAN should also continue to strengthen intraregional and sub-regional cooperation to protect itself from heightened geopolitical and economic risks. Keeping borders open for trade and investment is the only proven way for firms to promote diversification and substitution of products, services, and build wider partnerships for more resilient global value chains. Diversified value chains are a much more powerful source of resilience than one heavily concentrated in a single location.
Q&A: Narrowing the Development Gap: Follow-Up Monitor of the ASEAN Framework for Equitable Economic Development
A new ADB report finds that the path to recovery has proven uneven and diverse, yielding development gaps among member countries of ASEAN.
SEADS 2023: Call for Accelerated Climate Action Towards a Net-Zero ASEAN
SEADS 2023 amplified the urgent call for climate action to ensure Southeast Asia’s carbon neutrality by 2050, and highlighted the importance of partnerships to accelerate climate financing and decarbonization.
Ties That Bind: BIMP-EAGA and IMT-GT Are Vital Building Blocks for ASEAN
At their respective leaders’ summits in Indonesia, both subregional programs demonstrated their ongoing contribution to regional economic resilience, with key support from ADB and other development partners.
Seven Funding Innovations to Boost Climate Finance
Devastating floods, deadly heatwaves, and intense droughts in Asia and the Pacific over the past year confirm what scientists have been warning for years: the impacts of climate change are here and they’re getting worse.
This paper analyzes the uptake of electric vehicles in Asia and the Pacific and shows how the electrification of transport systems can speed up the transition to a low-carbon future.
ACEF 2023 will be a 4-day in-person event to be held at ADB Headquarters in Manila on the week of 13–16 June 2023.
Social monitoring reports provide the status of social issues or mitigation measures related to project implementation.
This document dated July 2022 is provided for the ADB project 49345-002 in Sri Lanka.
In this paper, we examine various macroeconomic impacts of improving energy efficiency in the People’s Republic of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand from 2010 to 2050. The paper finds that energy efficiency policies in Asia are expected to have a positive impact on private consumption, government expenditures, and investment. Such policies would also lead to a significant rise in trade within the region while reducing trade outside. Without measures to improve efficiency, emissions would increase significantly in most countries studied.
Keynote address by Ahmed M. Saeed, ADB Vice-President, Operations 2, at the Ministerial Dialogue on Regional Energy Transition Outlooks: Southeast Asia Energy Transitions at the IRENA Assembly, 15 January 2023
Thank you, Francesco La Camera, Minister Arifin Tasrif, and Minister R.K. Singh.
It is an honor to be here for this ministerial dialogue and I appreciate the opportunity to share some thoughts with this group. I could not ask to be in better company.
Francesco, thank you for your leadership of IRENA. We should all be grateful for the role this organization is playing. I have come to have great respect for your organization’s analytical work. The Renewable Energy Outlook for ASEAN is again proof that IRENA is willing to tackle complex, dynamic problems with a distinctive, thoughtful, well-informed and incisive voice.
I want also to congratulate you, Pak Arifin, and the Government of Indonesia for an enormously successful G20 Presidency, one where you demonstrated clearly that international cooperation has a future, and one in which Indonesia made clear that its commitment to an accelerated, strong and responsible energy transition will be focused and will lead to real action on the ground. ADB takes great pride in the work we did with you and your staff through the Energy Transition Mechanism Focus Group Discussions over the course of 2022.
I would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge ADB’s many friends from ASEAN. It is a privilege to be with you today, and to be your partner as well as a longstanding supporter to ASEAN in initiatives such as ASEAN Infrastructure Fund and the ASEAN Catalytic Green Facility.
Some places, some moments are more important than others. In my view, it is hard to overstate how important – how consequential – it is to be here today, in Abu Dhabi, host of COP28, for a discussion on the issue of energy transition and, specifically, in the company of senior ASEAN leaders in order to reflect on this transition in your region.
It is of course a truth widely acknowledged that climate change is an existential challenge and this fight will be won or lost in emerging markets and in Asia. Emerging markets already account for the vast majority of the total increase in anthropomorphic GHG emissions, and more than 50% of total emissions now come from Asia.
I would argue however, that if we zoom down to take a closer look at this battlefield, we would find that the decisive front is in fact in ASEAN. If Asia is to transition successfully, if emerging markets are to transition, then ASEAN must show the way, in creating models that can be adapted and replicated elsewhere in the developing world.
Getting this right is not easy work. It will demand more from all for us in this room: governments, regional organizations, international organizations and multilateral banks.
At ADB, we too, are trying to do our part. We are raising our ambition―with a new goal of $100 billion in total climate financing commitment by 2030 and we are working hard to test new initiatives and forms of collaboration across the public, private and philanthropic sectors.
I have taken three lessons from our own journey to date and, if you will permit me, I thought I will take this opportunity to share them in the hope they may also be useful for others:
First, we need to have a very clear-minded sense of what's really unique about our own organization. My anecdotal version of the strengths of ADB: first, we have deep, unique knowledge of certain subjects; second, we understand developing countries in Asia and know from decades of experience in working with them how to get things done in them; and third, which is the most important, is the power we – and organizations like IRENA as well - derive from our developing country members. We are trusted by you and have no agenda other than your welfare and progress.
A second lesson I have drawn, this clear sense of our own capabilities matters because without it, we cannot foster the creation of high impact partnerships. Addressing climate change will take a village – public sector, private sector, philanthropy, civil society. In order to build partnerships, we need to understand our strengths and embrace the idea of enabling others. The original idea for the energy transition mechanism, for example, was not ours, it came from a deeply committed and experienced executive in the financial services sector. And to make it real, it would require collaboration with Minister Arifin, public and private organizations, and philanthropies.
Effective partnerships cannot succeed without the uniquely powerful capabilities of governments and public sector organizations like those here today. To help partnerships succeed, the public sector must become more open architecture.
A final lesson I will share, one that I have drawn, is that pragmatism and a bias towards action are the order of the day. The solutions to complex dynamic problems are to be found in the field not in the lab. This sounds like a low brow notion, but it also has a high brow pedigree―it is in fact how AI and machine learning systems operate. Start with your best approximation of the right answer, implement, learn, iterate, and adapt, repeating this process over and over. In the VC community they call it getting to product market fit.
All of this will also demand getting comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity, and it requires a bias towards action. Information has value but so, especially now, does time.
I believe that those of us gathered together in this room, playing to our respective strengths, are on the right path to tackling energy transition.
Please allow me to end on a final, hopeful note. Climate change, a threat that is driving the world and that discriminates against the weakest and most vulnerable, is also an unprecedented opportunity for us to work together and to come together. This historic challenge also represents the greatest opportunity to mobilize capital and ideas for emerging markets that we will ever see in our lifetimes. If we get this right, we, and in my view ASEAN, blazing the trail, have the opportunity will discover that that decarbonization is in fact another name for development.
Remarks by Masatsugu Asakawa President, Asian Development Bank, at the 15th Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) Leaders’ Summit, 11 May 2023, Labuan Bajo, Indonesia
Remarks by Masatsugu Asakawa, President, Asian Development Bank, at the 15th Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) Leaders’ Summit, 11 May 2023, Labuan Bajo, Indonesia
Opening remarks by Roberta Casali, ADB Vice-President for Finance and Risk Management, at the 56th Annual Meeting Seminar Sponsored by DZ Bank, 5 May 2023, Incheon, Republic of Korea
Welcome address by Ashok Lavasa, ADB Vice President for Private Sector Operations and Public–Private Partnerships, at the CEO Forum, at the 56th Annual Meeting, 5 May 2023, Incheon, Republic of Korea
