MANILA — The Asian Development Bank on Monday announced that it is tripling the size of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic to $20 billion.
The ADB said the package will be available to member countries so that they can counter COVID-19's impact on health and the economy.
The multilateral lender said it is also streamlining its operations for quicker and more flexible delivery of assistance.
“Our expanded and comprehensive package of assistance, made possible with the strong support of our Board, will be delivered more quickly, flexibly, and forcefully to the governments and the private sector in our developing member countries to help them address the urgent challenges in tackling the pandemic and economic downturn,” said ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa.
The private sector will be able to tap $2 billion from the $20 billion package, ADB said.
ADB’s most recent assessment, released on April 3, forecasts regional growth to decline to 2.2 percent this year from 5.2 percent last year because of the effects of the pandemic.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
