ADB Announces Financial Support Package to Help Asia and Pacific Mitigate Impacts from Middle East Conflict

ADB will deliver rapid, flexible, and scalable assistance to help countries manage immediate pressures and strengthen long-term resilience, notably fast-disbursing budget support and trade and supply chain finance to secure the import of essential goods, now including oil. This builds on our strong track record of supporting Asia and the Pacific through periods of global uncertainty.

Capital, technology, and expertise exist globally at unprecedented scale, but they do not flow fast enough or at sufficient scale into emerging markets. This is not a lack of ambition, but a challenge of alignment: how risk is priced, how policy signals are read, and how quickly strong ideas become investable projects. Guided by (our new) Advisory Group, ADB is evolving from financier to comprehensive partner, creating the conditions for the private sector to invest with confidence and deliver lasting impact in Asia and the Pacific.

Global fragmentation is a policy choice. In Davos, I argued that we must anchor dialogue in tangible projects that deliver real-world results.

There is no better example of this than the ASEAN Power Grid, or APG. I led a vibrant and constructive discussion on the significant potential benefits and challenges of the APG. I stressed ADB's pivotal role in addressing the risks of cross-border projects as an honest broker.

At ADB’s International Anticorruption Day Celebration, I underscored a core message: corruption is a tax on the poor that steals the future. It diverts resources meant to build schools, pave roads, and protect the vulnerable.

Our IT Delivery and Resiliency Center in Spain is an important step in ADB’s transformation into a digital-first institution.

This center will strengthen our cybersecurity, enhance operational resilience, and enable faster, more agile, data-driven operations that better serve the poor and vulnerable people at the heart of our mission.