The Asian Development Bank (ADB) committed $679.8 million in 2025 for its Pacific developing member countries, including $214.4 million in grants from the Asian Development Fund, according to its Annual Report 2025 released in Manila. The funding reflects ADB’s continued focus on supporting economic sustainability, structural reforms, climate resilience, and private sector development across the Pacific region.
ADB officials highlighted that strengthening resilience remains a core priority, particularly in helping Pacific economies reduce vulnerability to external shocks and climate-related risks. The bank’s work in 2025 also aimed to create a stronger enabling environment for private sector growth, with initiatives designed to improve access to finance and support innovation.
A key component of this effort was the launch of the Pacific Wayfinder program, which supports job creation, innovation, and capital market development. The program provides concessional finance and technical assistance to help businesses expand and access investment, while ADB’s Frontier program focuses on deepening local capital markets to improve financing opportunities for smaller enterprises.
Infrastructure investment remained a major focus area, with ADB committing an $80 million grant alongside expected $40 million cofinancing from the World Bank to construct a 720-meter bridge across Tonga’s Fanga’uta Lagoon. The project also includes road upgrades and improvements to water supply and drainage systems, with ADB acting as the lead lender under a joint financing framework with the World Bank.
The bank also responded to disaster recovery needs in the region. Following a 7.3-magnitude earthquake in Vanuatu in late 2024, ADB provided $5.5 million in emergency assistance and approved a $24.4 million grant to rehabilitate a key access road linking Port Vila to its wharves, supporting recovery and restoring critical infrastructure.
In Papua New Guinea, ADB supported aviation connectivity by financing pre-delivery payments for six Airbus A220-100 aircraft for Air Niugini, including contributions through its ordinary capital resources and the Leading Asia’s Private Infrastructure Fund 2. The investment is intended to improve transport access for remote and mountainous regions.
Regional cooperation and institutional presence were further strengthened with the opening of ADB’s Solomon Islands Resident Mission in February 2026, reflecting the bank’s commitment to closer country-level engagement. Across the Pacific in 2025, the largest areas of ADB investment were transport, urban infrastructure and services, finance, energy, and public sector management.
Overall, ADB committed $29.3 billion across Asia and the Pacific in 2025, reinforcing its broader mandate to promote resilient, inclusive, and sustainable development through financing, partnerships, and institutional reform across its member countries.
