The High-Level Technology Fund or HLTF provides grant financing to promote the integration of high-level technology (HLT) and innovative solutions into ADB-financed and -administered sovereign and nonsovereign projects throughout the project cycle. The fund encourages more widespread adoption of HLT to address development challenges in ADB’s developing member countries. Fund resources are used for a broad range of innovative technologies and solutions that enable technological development and/or the scaling up of the technology deployment in the recipient country.
The fund also supports the Technology Innovation Challenge program, which seeks proposals for proof-of-concept or pilot studies of HLTF applications from technology providers in developing countries’ contexts.
One of the highlights of 2022 for the HLTF is its replenishment of ¥1.4 billion ($9.5 million). The Government of Japan requested ADB to administer the resources per the fund’s implementation guidelines. Fifteen approvals amounted to $7.6 million under the HLTF—2 project grants ($0.8 million), 11 technical assistance projects ($6.6 million), and 2 direct charges ($0.2 million). Effective 13 October 2022, the management of the HLTF, including its role as secretariat to the steering committee, was transferred from the Office of the Director General, Sustainable Development and Climate Change (SDCC), to the SDCC Partner Funds Division.
News
ADB has approved a $59 million loan and $500,000 grant to enhance livability and economic competitiveness in four secondary cities of Uzbekistan. ADB will also provide a capacity development program to improve sustainability, efficiency, and services delivery in the four cities. The bank will administer the $500,000 grant provided as cofinancing by the High-Level Technology Fund for a new digital museum in the city of Khiva’s new tourist center.
ADB has approved a $150 million loan and a $3 million grant to help improve food and water security in Uzbekistan through better land and water resources management for improved agricultural productivity. The project will ensure the efficient use of water resources by upgrading selected irrigation and drainage systems and enhancing the country’s capacity to manage them better. ADB will also administer a $300,000 grant from its High-Level Technology Fund.
Stories
A pilot project in Viet Nam is testing a heat exchange technology that reuses industrial wastewater for heating and cooling production processes. Japan-based Asano Taiseikiso Engineering Co., Ltd (ATK) is working on pilot-testing the use of industrial wastewater in its high-efficiency heat exchanger for a clean cooling and heating system in Viet Nam. The ATK is among the winners of the Technology Innovation Challenge for Energy, supported by ADB and the High-Level Technology Fund.
With cofinancing from the High-Level Technology Fund, the Republic of Korea e-Asia and Knowledge Partnership Fund, Ireland Trust Fund for Building Climate Change and Disaster Resilience in Small Island Developing States, and the People’s Republic of China Poverty Reduction and Regional Cooperation Fund, ADB approved the technical assistance on Regional Support to Address the Outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Potential Outbreaks of Other Communicable Diseases.
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