ADB to provide US$6 billion to India

GREATER NOIDA, India: India will get loan of about US$ 6 billion ( RM17.8 billion) from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) over the next three years for various projects, including those in energy and education sectors, Press Trust of India ( PTI) reported.

“Our idea is ADB will maintain its lending level to India, approximately US$ 2 billion ( RM5.94 billion) over next three years.

“We are now working on the country partnership strategy and we are planning to maintain the level of lending to India,” ADB President Takehiko Nakao said at the concluding day of the 46th annual meeting of the funding agency here.

India is the biggest borrower of ADB as the Manila-based multilateral lender had extended US$ 2.4 billion ( RM7.12 billion) loan to it in 2012 across sectors including transport, energy, commerce and industry, trade, finance, agriculture and natural resource management and it will likely to continue extending assistance in these sectors.

Meanwhile, Nakao also said that the bank would continue to lend US$ 1 billion ( RM2.97 billion) a year across the member-nations despite generating lower return from investments.

Stating that ADB is facing a resource challenge, he said this issue would require urgent and careful attention.

“We will look at all options for ensuring that our lending level remains adequate,” he said. — Bernama