Nine members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and The Asian Development Bank (ADB) have committed an initial equity investment of $485 million to create a fund to finance major infrastructure projects across the region. The fund is targeting $4 billion of lending to projects totaling $13 billion by 2020. ASEAN member states, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam committed $335 million, and ADB committed the remaining $150 million.

The ADB estimates that ASEAN needs to invest approximately $60 billion per year to address the region’s infrastructure needs across road, rail, power and water resources.

The $13 billion target is based on the premise that the fund’s $4 billion lending commitment will be accompanied by ADB loans for 70 percent of each projectâ€