CEBU: The Asian Development Bank said Friday it will mobilize $30 billion by 2030 to help the Association of Southeast Asian Nations advance long-term development priorities and strengthen resilience to external shocks, giving the 10-member bloc a multiyear financing pipeline centered on infrastructure, capital markets, technology and climate resilience. The announcement came during the 48th ASEAN Summit in Cebu, where leaders were meeting against a backdrop of market volatility, energy security concerns and pressure to accelerate regional integration.
ADB President Masato Kanda announced the commitment while attending the summit as guest of the chair, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The bank said the package would combine financing, technical expertise and a pipeline of public and private sector investments intended to support ASEAN priorities more directly. The move also deepens ADB’s role as a strategic financing and advisory partner for Southeast Asia at a time when governments are trying to convert regional policy plans into bankable projects and cross-border programs.
ADB said the $30 billion package would target five regional flagship initiatives. It includes $6 billion to deepen ASEAN capital markets and $5 billion to accelerate the ASEAN Power Grid, while the rest is directed toward improving artificial intelligence readiness, expanding the blue economy and strengthening river basin resilience. The structure gives the commitment a clearer sector breakdown than a broad headline figure alone, tying the bank’s 2030 pledge to projects that span finance, energy, digital capacity and climate adaptation across ASEAN economies.
Capital markets and grid financing
The capital markets component builds on an ADB initiative launched in April to mobilize up to $6 billion by 2030 and provide institutional support to regulators across Southeast Asia. ADB said that work is designed to deepen domestic and regional markets, strengthen local currency bond markets and widen institutional investor participation. For ASEAN governments and companies, stronger capital markets are seen as a way to broaden funding options in local currencies and reduce vulnerability to swings in global financing conditions.
The power grid allocation follows ADB’s launch of a new trust fund in April to finance project preparation for the ASEAN Power Grid, a long-running regional plan to connect electricity systems across member states. The Regional Connectivity Fund for Energy in Southeast Asia started with about $25 million in contributions from Australia, Canada, the European Union, Germany and the United Kingdom. ADB has said stronger grid links can improve energy security, support cross-border electricity trade and help integrate more renewable power into Southeast Asia’s energy mix.
Regional priorities and summit backdrop
The announcement landed as ASEAN leaders continued summit talks on economic resilience, energy security and regional coordination. Those themes have gained urgency as governments confront volatile commodity prices, supply chain disruptions and climate-linked risks that cut across borders. By tying the financing package to specific initiatives rather than a single broad program, ADB positioned the commitment around concrete regional platforms that governments can use for capital market development, electricity connectivity, technology readiness and water-related resilience over the rest of the decade.
For ASEAN, the pledge gives the bloc a defined financing target from one of its most important development partners, while for the Asian Development Bank it marks a push to move from policy support to implementation at scale. The bank said the commitment is intended to deliver lasting benefits through coordinated public and private investment across Southeast Asia, with the five flagship areas serving as the main channels for deployment through 2030 – By Content Syndication Services.
