This assurance was given on Sunday by ADB President Takehiko Nakao at a press conference here, on the concluding day of the 46th annual meeting of the funding agency.
“We are now working on the country partnership strategy and are planning to maintain the level of lending to India,” he said.
ADB's sovereign lending to India was $1.95 billion in 2012, beside $0.33 billion to the private sector and another $0.07 million in grants.
This totalled $2.35 bn (Rs 12,630 crore) across the transport, energy, commerce, industry, trade and finance sectors. India is also the single biggest borrower from ADB.
On being asked how $2 billion would qualify as the same level of lending, ADB officials explained the president spoke of sovereign lending. Total lending would be retained at almost $2.5 billion a year.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram had asked the Manila-based bank to explore how it could employ its expertise in energy, logistics, urban development and skills development around the economic corridor between Delhi and Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore and between Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Nakao wouldn’t specify which new projects would be financed. "At this point, these are in discussion,” he said.
India’s infrastructure funding need is pegged at $1 trillion (Rs 107 lakh crore) during the 12th five-year plan (2012-13 to 2016-17).
Finance issues
As ADB's finances have come under strain due to a dip in the rates of return on investment in European countries, India had yesterday suggested member- countries augment ADB resources.
And, asked the bank to opt for innovative ways of financing.
Nakao did not specify whether the resources would be augmented or not, since ADB got its capital base increased in 2009 after a gap of 15 years.
"That is a very difficult issue. Chidambaram mentioned it. I don't want to specify what kind of ideas we have regarding at this moment," he said.
ADB's debt dues rose to $642.8 billion in 2012 from $582.6 billion the previous year.
Its paid-in capital and reserves rose to $164.2 billion from $165.3 billion over the period.
When asked whether ADB would be looking for equity financing, Nakao said this route was risky but yielded higher return, and should be carefully considered. He said the International Finance Corporation, private lending arm of the World Bank, does equity financing successfully.
But,
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