A solar power plant in Tay Ninh province, Vietnam. Singapore’s central bank is supporting bio-energy and solar projects in Southeast Asia through its Green Investment Partnership.
Tan Dao Duy | moment | getty images
Asian Development Bank $70 billion PlanSoutheast Asia is set to receive the biggest boost, supporting new energy and digital infrastructure in the region.
The program includes a Pan-Asia Power Grid initiative, connecting national and sub-regional power systems, and an Asia-Pacific Digital Highway to bridge the infrastructure gap in the region, according to the ADB, which has set a deadline of 2035 for financing the projects.
“Energy and digital access will define the future of the region,” ADB President Masato Kanda said in a statement Sunday.
This connectivity will create the systems Asia and the Pacific need to grow, compete and connect, Kanda said. “By connecting power grids and digital networks across borders, we can lower costs, expand opportunity, and bring reliable electricity and digital access to billions of people.”
While the funds are for the entire Asia-Pacific region, experts say Southeast Asia is expected to be a major beneficiary of ADB’s connectivity push.
The bank generally leans toward developing member countries based on development needs, project readiness and mandate, regardless of market size, said Greg Staton, vice president and chief technology officer for Asia Pacific and Japan at AI-powered data security firm Cohesity.
Stanton said that unlike Southeast Asia, China has largely moved away from ADB financing with its own financial institutions and policies. India has strong access to capital markets and runs many domestically funded projects, although it still receives a fair amount of funding from ADB, while Japan itself is a major funder of ADB.
“Larger economies such as China, India and Japan already have more established domestic capital markets, deeper infrastructure financing channels and greater fiscal capacity to finance large-scale projects internally,” said Chasen Nevett, managing partner of principal investments at GMA Capital Partners. He said Southeast Asia is structurally embedded in both energy interconnections and digital infrastructure.
“This combination creates a more efficient deployment environment for capital, where every dollar can unlock broader private sector participation and accelerate regional integration,” Nevett said.
power play
Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines are expected to be the biggest beneficiaries in Southeast Asia.
According to Stanton, based on ADB’s historical lending patterns and current priorities, those countries are expected to receive a larger share of the $70 billion funding due to their population size, infrastructure needs and active project pipelines.
While Malaysia and Thailand may also benefit because they are regional hubs for energy and data infrastructure, the relative marginal effect of capital may be somewhat lower due to their more developed base in Southeast Asia, Nevett said.
near malaysia Largest data center project pipeline According to Wood Mackenzie, Southeast Asia accounts for about 60% of all proposed projects in the region and, along with Thailand, is expected to lead data-center load demand in Southeast Asia through 2035.
ADB funding also provides an opportunity to build interoperable transmission systems that allow clean energy to flow across borders, improving reliability and reducing costs, said Scott Dunn, head of strategy and development for Asia at infrastructure consulting firm AECOM.
Markets such as Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia have abundant hydropower and rapidly expanding solar and wind, but they lack the cross-border capacity to carry clean power to the largest demand centers, Dunn said, adding that ADB’s plans are “effectively designed for these situations.”
ADB aims to integrate about 20 gigawatts of renewable energy across borders and connect 22,000 circuit-kilometres of transmission lines by 2035.
