The two partners signed an agreement to expand Korea’s co-financing support for the bank’s projects in Asia and the Pacific, under which it will provide $650m of concessional loans.
ADB president Takehiko Nakao said: “[This] will pave way for ADB and the Republic of Korea to jointly make a more profound impact on the ground in the priority areas of transport, energy, environment, health, public governance, education and information and communication technology.
“I am hopeful that we can also scale up knowledge collaboration and promote the use of high-level technology to make out investments in these areas much more effective.”
This financing will be provided through Korea’s Economic Development Cooperation Fund in the next three years.
The bank and Korea also signed a cooperation agreement on the Korea-Asia and Pacific Tech Corp Programme, which allow young experts from various Korean sectors to contribute to technical capacity building in ADB’s developing member countries.
Since joining the ADB in 1966, Korea has contributed more than $7.62bn. It has also provided $1.6bn in loan co-financing for 17 ADB projects in the areas of skills development, railway, power generation and transmission, urban and rural development, and regional cooperation.
