CHENNAI: The Asian Development Bank is keen on widening the scope of its assistance in India to cover some relatively new areas such as tourism infrastructure development, urban transport, agriculture infrastructure, including commodity markets, and water resource management.

This is driven by the multilateral funding agency's emphasis on becoming "relevant to the needs of a middle income country ... India is changing so much and needs new products [financial assistance]," said its Director- General for South Asia Kunio Senga.

Such new lines of assistance would be in addition to the bank's support in the core areas of transport, energy and urban sector development, he told The Hindu during his recent visit to Chennai.

ADB would also like to be associated with ultra mega power project, said Mr. Senga, who was in Tamil Nadu to review progress of the ADB Tsunami Emergency Assistance (Sector) Project.

The bank would focus on evolving better products and streamline its operations in the country. India was very important to the ADB, from the perspective of being a model. It was in this backdrop that the bank wanted India to encourage public-private partnerships. "The success [of Indian operations] can be replicated for the rest of Asia."

During his weeklong visit to India, he also addressed a workshop of the Chief Secretaries of Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan in Goa.

A release said he told the meeting that the bank was open to new and innovative ways to develop such partnerships. It also wanted the public-private partnership to be applied in sectors other than infrastructure. "For example, there are significant possibilities for public-private partnership in social sectors such as health and education, as well as in tourism."

From Chennai, Mr. Senga went to New Delhi and held discussions with officials of the Department of Economic Affairs on ADB's Country Partnership Strategy 2007 for India.

A release said the assistance programme would be closely aligned with the priorities of India's 11th Plan.

The recommendations of the 11th Plan will guide the preparation of the 2007 strategy, which is likely to be finalised by October 2007.

According to the release, the ADB assistance programme is expected to increase from around $2.45 billion in 2007 to $2.85 billion in 2009.

"Broadly, it is our aim to raise annual lending levels to more than $2 billion, and disbursement to between $800 million and $1 billion annually. The ADB and the Government are working closely towards reaching these goals," the release quoted Mr. Senga as saying.

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