ADB's climate financing should be concessional: Finance minister

Finance Minister AH Mahmood Ali has called upon the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to make its climate financing concessional while placing five specific proposals regarding measures for tackling immediate economic concerns of the developing member countries (DMC).

In placing the proposals today (5 May), he said, "Geo-political uncertainties are disproportionately affecting impoverished segments of the globe."

"Taking macro economic predicaments into consideration, policy-based support and concessional financing would be instrumental in tackling immediate economic concerns of the developing member countries," Ali said while delivering his statement at the business session of the Board of Governors 57th ADB Annual Meeting here in Georgian capital city. 

"We expect that ADB's climate financing should be concessional," he said.

Moreover, the Bangladesh finance minister said, as rightly expressed by Prime 

Minister Sheikh Hasina, climate finance must also meet three other criteria: sufficiency, regularity, and accessibility.

He called upon ADB to undertake more projects to minimise existing digital disparities on the one hand, and 

unlock the potentials of 4IR technologies on the other hand.

Due to heightened volatility and a widening spread of commodity prices, Ali said the prime minister has given directives that not a single inch of agricultural land be kept unused. 

"Aligned with her vision, we want ADB will undertake projects to induce smart technologies in our agriculture, 

facilitate modern marketing facilities and eliminate barriers to fully unlock the potentials of agro-businesses," said the finance minister. 

Moreover, Ali said, it wants ADB to bring  more investment in renewable energy with appropriate tech solutions.

"As our own Asian Bank, to ADB we held higher expectations. I  have strong hopes that this conference will set the just vision for us to steer through a muddled world, determine strategies for addressing real challenges, scale up concessional climate finance, and harness newer opportunities in digital economic cooperation and building regional connectivity," he said.

Ali said they are currently living in a world that is plagued by weak and uneven global growth, decades-high inflation, reduced fiscal space, high real interest rates and elevated debt incidences. 

"Facing all these odds, our assembling here at the crossroads of East and West drums up the urgency of building robust connectivity as well as consolidating our collective actions for bridging to the future," he said.

With a clear national vision and under the prudent leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the minister said, Bangladesh rode on a high growth trajectory before the pandemic. 

"ADB lent to us fitting support in this epic journey. However, due to prolonged war, rising geopolitical tensions and frequent raids of extreme weather events, Bangladesh, like many other developing economies, is currently experiencing persistent headwinds and continued volatility," Ali said.

For Bangladesh, he said, the challenge is now how to manage macro fundamentals while pursuing a path for sustained higher growth. 

"Our challenge now is how to garner additional funds while counterbalancing  debt accumulations," he mentioned.

President of ADB Masatsugu Asakawa and Chair of the Board of Governors Lasha Khutsishvili, among others, were present at the event.