Kathmandu, April 21:

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved $10.1 billion in loans in 2007, a 37 per cent increase over the previous year, in response to demands for development assistance.

“It was a very busy, productive, and exciting year for ADB,” ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda said in the ADB’s 2007 Annual Report, which was released ahead of ADB’s 41st annual meeting to be held on May 3-6 in Madrid, Spain.

“Our annual loan approvals grew from $7.4 billion in 2006 to $10.1 billion in 2007, clearly demonstrating the growing demand for ADB assistance in all parts of the region,” he said. The 2007 amount is the highest in ADB’s 41-year history.

Pakistan was the largest borrower with $2 billion or 20 per cent of the total loans ADB extended last year. The operational sector with the biggest share of loans was transport and communications with $3.9 billion, or 39 per cent of total loans, more than double the amount in 2006. Loans with government guarantees last year totalled $9.2 billion for 61 projects. Of this amount, $7.4 billion came from the ordinary capital resources of ADB, while the balance was sourced from the concessional Asian Development Fund (ADF), states a press release.

ADB approved a further $672.7 million of assistance in grants in 2007, up by 25 per cent from the previous year. Of the total, $519.3 million came from ADF IX, $30 million from the Pakistan Earthquake Fund, and $123.4 million from external sources with full or partial administration by ADB.

A total of 242 technical assistance projects were approved worth $243.4 million, all of which were also provided as grants.

Recognising the important role of the private sector in generating jobs and economic growth, ADB approved $760.3 million for 19 non-sovereign loans to the private sector and $105.0 million for three non-sovereign loans to the public sector.

On project performance last year, ADB showed an improvement in disbursement to $6.8 billion from $5.7 billion in 2006. Of the total, $5.2 billion were disbursements from ordinary capital resources while ADF disbursements accounted for the balance.