ADB South Asia Working Paper Series
Closing the Financing Gap in Asian Infrastructure
Sungsup Ra and Zhigang Li
No. 57 | June 2018
Sungsup Ra is a director at the Human and Social
Development Division (SAHS), South Asia Department,
Asian Development Bank (ADB); and Zhigang Li is a
social sector specialist at SAHS, ADB.
We thank Kairon Shayne D. Garcia for her excellent
research assistance to this report.
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 IGO license (CC BY 3.0 IGO)
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ISSN 2313-5867 (print), 2313-5875 (electronic)
Publication Stock No. WPS189402-2
DOI: http://dx.doi/10.22617/WPS189402-2
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CONTENTS
TABLES AND FIGURES ....iv
ABBREVIATIONS ... v
ABSTRACT ...vi
I. INTRODUCTION ..... 1
II. HOW WIDE IS ASIA’S INFRASTRUCTURE FINANCING GAP . 3
A. Economic Infrastructure ..... 3
B. Social Infrastructure . 5
C. Structure of Financing Gaps ........... 7
III. WHY HAVE ASIA’S SAVINGS LARGELY FAILED TO FINANCE
ITS INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS ........... 8
A. Cross-border Investment Paradox .. 8
B. Sources of Failure ......... 11
IV. HOW TO BRIDGE THE FINANCING GAP ... 16
A. Solution Framework .... 16
B. Role of Multilateral Development Banks18
C. Latest Developments in Infrastructure Financing Modalities in Asia ....... 19
D. Caveat of New Initiatives for Infrastructure Financing .......... 21
V. CONCLUSION ....... 22
REFERENCES ......... 25