Report Launch: Financing and Implementing the Quality Infrastructure Agenda
Leveraging the U.S.-Japan Partnership to Advance the Quality Infrastructure Agenda in the Indo-Pacific Region and Beyond
Download the Report
The demand for quality infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond is both a challenge and an opportunity for the international community. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates that Asia alone will require more than $1.7 trillion annually through 2030, to support its growing infrastructure needs. Public finance on its own cannot close the infrastructure gap, and with foreign aid limited to a few hundred billion dollars each year, the global demand for quality infrastructure will require financing from diverse sources including the private sector, multilateral development banks (MDBs), and others.
Conventional development assistance can be leveraged to catalyze private finance participation and create new opportunities for investment in several meaningful ways. Support for crowding in private investment is also a crucial part of the Trump Administration’s National Security Strategy, which calls for “strengthened cooperation with allies on high-quality infrastructure” in Asia. The Ise-Shima principles adopted by the G7 in 2016 indicate a strong endorsement for the promotion of quality infrastructure in terms of life-cycle cost, safety, resilience against natural disasters, job creation, capacity building, transfer of expertise and know-how, alignment with local development strategies, ensuring debt sustainability, and limiting social and environmental costs.
Globally, an increased emphasis on quality infrastructure reflects the growing recognition that infrastructure of subpar quality can become bottlenecks to sustainable growth. The G20, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Asia–Europe Meeting (ASEM), and other international fora have also highlighted the importance of quality infrastructure. It is a challenge faced not just by traditional donors, but emerging donors as well. Therefore, a discussion on the need for a shared understanding of the fundamental principles of quality infrastructure - and its consolidation as a universally-accepted international standard – will be useful.
In this context, the Project on Prosperity and Development launches this new report identifying the practical steps that Japan, the U.S., and the international community can take together to help close the global infrastructure gap and enable quality infrastructure. Please join us for this timely conversation on the next steps that the United States and Japan must take to achieve the quality infrastructure agenda.
This event is made possible through generous support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.
Featuring
CSIS Experts
