ADB launches $70b push to connect Asia's power grids, digital networks

FE Team | Published: May 03, 2026 22:27:34

FE REPORT
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) would support $70 billion in new energy and digital infrastructure initiatives by 2035, aiming to connect power grids, expand cross-border electricity trade, and improve broadband access across Asia and the Pacific.
ADB President Masato Kanda announced the launch of the initiatives at a press conference during ADB's Annual Meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, said an ADB press release.
"Energy and digital access will define the region's future," it said, quoting the ADB head.
"These two initiatives build the systems Asia and the Pacific need to grow, compete, and connect. By linking power grids and digital networks across borders, we can lower costs, expand opportunity, and bring reliable power and digital access to hundreds of millions of people," he was quoted as saying.
The Pan-Asia Power Grid Initiative will connect national and subregional power systems so renewable energy can flow across borders, while the Asia-Pacific Digital Highway will help close the digital infrastructure gap and enable the region to benefit from AI-driven growth, according to the press release.
Under the Initiative, ADB will work with governments, utilities, the private sector, and development partners to mobilize $50 billion by 2035 for cross-border power infrastructure that can unlock renewable energy at scale.
The initiative aims to focus on transmission and grid integration, including cross-border lines, substations, storage, and grid digitalization. It will also support power generation linked to electricity trade, including renewable energy export projects, regional renewable hubs, and hybrid generation-storage facilities.
The ADB aims to integrate about 20 gigawatts of renewable energy across borders, connect 22,000 circuit-kilometers of transmission lines, improve energy access for 200 million people, create 840,000 jobs, and cut regional power sector emissions by 15 per cent by 2035.
ADB expects to finance about half of the $50 billion initiative from its own resources and raise the rest through cofinancing, including from the private sector, it said.
Meanwhile, the ADB also launched a new financing facility to help countries in Asia and the Pacific develop critical minerals supply chains needed for clean energy, batteries, electric vehicles, and digital technology, a separate press release on the day.
"Critical minerals will shape the next industrial era," the ADB president was quoted as saying.
"Asia and the Pacific should be more than a source of raw materials. The region should also capture the jobs, technology, and value these minerals provide," the ADB head said at the Bank's annual meeting in Samarkand.
"This facility is about urgency and fairness: building responsible supply chains now, so our developing member countries can compete in advanced manufacturing and create opportunities at home," he said.
The Critical Minerals-to-Manufacturing Financing Partnership Facility is intended to move the region beyond mining and into higher-value industries such as processing, manufacturing, and recycling, according to the press release.
The facility aims to prepare projects, reform policies, and support public investment and private financing across critical minerals value chains, it said.
The facility builds on ADB's 2025 strategy to support responsible and sustainable critical minerals-to-manufacturing value chains across the region.
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