JAKARTA, 28 April 2022 – The Lead Implementing Body for Sustainable Infrastructure (LIB-SI), ASEAN Secretariat, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF) co-organised a workshop on Post-COVID-19 Infrastructure and Connectivity in Southeast Asia: Challenges and Opportunities, on 26 April.

The online workshop shared information and exchanged views on investment and policy strategies of some multilateral development banks (MDBs) and facilities that can be tapped by governments. It also touched on infrastructure challenges and opportunities in several ASEAN Member States, particularly in the transport and energy sectors.

Deputy Secretary-General for ASEAN Economic Community Satvinder Singh; Urjit R. Patel, Vice President, Investment Operations Region 1 of AIIB; and Zhongjing Wang, Chief Executive Officer of the MCDF, delivered opening remarks.

In his remarks, Deputy Secretary-General Singh said that “governments in the region increasingly face significant budgetary constraints in sustaining investments from public sources. This makes it imperative for us to unlock greater alternative infrastructure investment and financing.”

He further suggested collaboration opportunities between ASEAN and MDBs to promote sustainable infrastructure, including through advancing the Initial Rolling Priority Pipeline of ASEAN Infrastructure Projects; creating enabling environment and addressing sustainability transition agenda; and developing tripartite collaborations involving ASEAN, MDB, and Dialogue Partners in developing sustainable infrastructure capacity building programmes.

The Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity (MPAC) 2025 underscores the importance of coordinating resources to deliver support for infrastructure projects in ASEAN. Closer review of the MPAC 2025 implementation reveals that connectivity and infrastructure have an increasing relevance due to the pandemic, particularly in supporting recovery and building resilience.

The workshop aims to foster partnerships between governments, MDBs, export credit agencies (ECAs), and other financial institutions in exploring financing opportunities of infrastructure projects in the post-COVID-19 pandemic period.

More than 140 participants, including officials and representatives from ASEAN Member States, MDBs, ECAs and other financial institutions, attended the event.