Meeting Asia's Infrastructure Needs

In 2009, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the ADB Institute projected infrastructure needs for developing Asia from 2010 to 2020 in Infrastructure for a Seamless Asia (Seamless Asia). The study covered 32 of ADB’s 45 developing member countries (DMCs) and four sectors: transport, power, telecommunications, and water supply and sanitation. It projected that total investment needs for the four infrastructure sectors would be slightly above $8 trillion (in 2008 prices) over the 11-year period, or almost $750 billion a year. This report updates these estimates by presenting infrastructure investment needs for all 45 DMCs from 2016 to 2030, the final year of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Two sets of estimates are presented. The first includes the costs of climate mitigation and adaptation (climate-adjusted estimate). Using this set of estimates, developing Asia will need to invest $26 trillion over the 15-years from 2016 to 2030, or $1.7 trillion per year. The second set of estimates does not include climate-adjusted costs (baseline estimate), and amounts to $22.6 trillion, or $1.5 trillion per year.