Asia facing daunting challenge in financing infrastructure projects

Asia is facing a daunting challenge in financing physical infrastructure projects in the next decade, where a funding of from 8 to 10 trillion U.S. dollars is needed, said a senior Indian official on Saturday. Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said that Asia is seeing a serious shortage of financial resources for its infrastructure projects and has looked for various financial resources to fund its infrastructure boom. Addressing an Asian Development Bank (ADB) annual meeting here, Chidambaram said due to low interest rates globally, it has become more difficult to raise fund for infrastructure projects. Meanwhile, the ADB lending will decline from 10 billion U.S. dollars to 8 billion U.S. dollars. "We are concerned we might hit the wall in three years," he said. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also suggested at the meeting that ADB and other institutions might channel the savings of Asian countries into funds for financing infrastructure projects. At a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN) and China, Japan, South Korea on Friday, China made an initiative to foster infrastructure financing bonds development, which was endorsed by other attendant countries.