Asia should tap its savings and mobilize private sector support to finance the new infrastructure it needs to sustain regional growth over the next few years, Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda has urged.
“We must work diligently to be innovative, yet financially responsible, in mobilizing Asian savings to deliver successful, sustainable and robust infrastructure projects,” Kuroda said at an infrastructure finance forum held Nov. 7 in Japan.
Kuroda explained that Asia can make use of infrastructure, provident and pension funds to channel its underutilized savings to help fund public-private infrastructure projects. ADB said Asia’s savings reached some USD4 trillion in 2009.
According to an ADB news release, Asia needs some USD8 trillion worth of new infrastructure investments to support economic growth through 2020. The bank noted that 40 percent of this sum covers infrastructure for the energy and electricity sector while transport accounts for some 25 percent. Infrastructure for health, water, education and other social services will take up 25 percent while the remaining balance will cover telecommunications.
