The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved $17.51 billion in financing operations last year to assist its developing member countries achieve their Millennium Development Goals.

According to ADB’s 2010 Annual Report, the multilateral lending agency approved $15.5 billion for investment support, $1.68 billion on policy-based support and $327 million for technical assistance. In addition, the ADB’s ongoing Trade Finance Program supported $2.77 billion in trade, the international lender said in a statement today.

“As the region moves beyond economic recovery to sustained growth, it must ensure that the evolving growth paradigm becomes more inclusive to benefit as many people as possible,” the ADB President, Mr Haruhiko Kuroda, said in the report.

Asia and Pacific region remains home to millions of the absolute poor and as per an ADB study, 14 out of 20 developing Asian economies saw their Gini coefficient — a measure of inequality — increase in recent years as economic growth accelerated.

According to the report, developing Asia must rebalance growth to reduce the reliance on external markets. The region must promote public-private partnerships to meet its infrastructure needs and ensure that development is inclusive and environmentally sustainable.

“The historic Millennium Declaration of 2000 promised a better life for millions of poor in Asia and the Pacific. How well this promise is fulfilled depends on our steadfast efforts,” Mr Kuroda added.

In 2010, ADB approved three operational plans for climate change, sustainable transport and education.

For the year ended 2010, ADB and its special funds provided $13.84 billion in financing, of which $11.46 billion was for 118 loans, $243 million for 8 equity investments, $982 million for 40 grant projects, $982 million for 5 guarantees and $176 million for 243 technical assistance projects.

Co-financing partners provided $3.67 billion, bringing the total approved financing to $17.51 billion, the statement added.

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