ADB collaborates with Austria through the Federal Ministry of Finance (MOF), which represents Austria as a shareholder at ADB. Per the MOF’s Strategic Guidelines for International Financial Institutions, Austria’s cooperation with such entities as a donor partner prioritizes four programmatic areas: i) sustainable energy and climate projection, ii) water and sanitation, iii) private and financial sector development, and iv) urban development and connectivity.
Currently, Austria’s partnership with ADB is facilitated via the support of Trust Funds and Regional Technical Assistance and focuses on climate protection and disaster risk management, sustainable railway infrastructure management, and water and sanitation. Furthermore, the MOF has been providing secondees to ADB on a regular basis.
Sovereign Cofinancing. In 2022, Austria provided $1.1 million in sovereign project-specific cofinancing, a technical assistance program for accelerating innovation in the transport sector of Asia and the Pacific.
Nonsovereign Cofinancing. The Trade and Supply Chain Finance Program (TSCFP) supported over 320 transactions valued at $210.3 million with banks domiciled in Austria from inception to December 2022. During the same period, the TSCFP supported over 120 Austrian exports and/or imports valued at $40.7 million. In 2022 alone, the TSCFP supported 8 transactions valued at $1.8 million with banks domiciled in Austria and supported 17 Austrian exports and/or imports valued at $2.6 million. Exports and/or imports were mainly to/from Bangladesh, Viet Nam, and Mongolia. Underlying goods involved mostly food and agriculture-related goods, industrial machinery and capital goods, as well as raw and non-energy commodities.
Special funds. Austria contributes to ADB special funds where contributions from financing partners are administered with the same level of care as ADB’s own resources. Since becoming a member in 1966, Austria has committed a total of $329.9 million to special funds, of which $310.3 million went to the Asian Development Fund (ADF). The ADF provides grants to ADB’s low-income developing member countries to promote poverty reduction and improvements in the quality of life.
Active Trust Funds
Trust funds with ongoing projects or no active projects but with remaining funds are considered active
News
As part of ADB’s Accelerating Sanitation for All in Asia and the Pacific, and with $1.1 million grant support from the Austrian government, the Philippines’ Manila Water is developing its capabilities to do wastewater-based epidemiology or WBE for surveillance of SARS-CoV-2. This will enable Manila Water to pursue water security for its 7.4 million customers and seek public health measures globally recognized to ensure that the East Zone population and its local government units are prepared for further COVID-19 infections.
This will assist the first 5 years of the government’s School Education Sector Plan 2021–2030 in a sector wide approach supported by eight development partners, including ADB. The program will enhance learning provisions for basic and secondary schools; strengthen teaching and learning in schools; accelerate the recovery from learning losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic; and improve capacity of local governments in education planning, monitoring, and reporting.
Stories
The Asia Pacific Water Fund has been helping communities access safe water and sanitation since 2006. Backed by the governments of Australia, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland plus the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the fund is composed of three trust funds: the Multidonor Trust Fund, the Netherlands Trust Fund, and the Sanitation Financing Partnership Trust Fund. Find out how the fund has been changing lives for the better for the last 16 years.
With cofinancing of $595,600 and technical expertise from the Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy at the Graz University of Technology, the Government of Austria is partnering with ADB to improve Azerbaijan’s ailing railway transport system. The support focuses on rail asset management to optimize performance and costs and the deployment of digital technology to enable predictive and preventative maintenance, avoiding the need for repairs.
Project Map
