Southeast Asian finance ministers have called for deeper cooperation with the World Bank to help close financing gaps for clean energy, infrastructure and climate adaptation, as governments in the region look for ways to draw more private investment into projects that remain difficult to finance.
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Finance ministers and representatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) met World Bank Group President Ajay Banga in Bangkok this week for the first Asean Finance Ministers-World Bank Group Dialogue held on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings.
The talks focused on mobilising private capital for infrastructure, improving access to affordable and reliable clean energy and securing greater World Bank support for climate adaptation, according to statements from the Philippine and Thai governments.
Philippine Finance Secretary Frederick Go, who chaired the Asean finance track, said the World Bank could help turn projects into investable opportunities by linking policy reforms with private capital.
“The World Bank Group can help Asean turn bankable ideas into investable projects, connect policy reforms with private capital, and share solutions across countries,” Go said, according to the Philippine Department of Finance.
Asean governments also sought greater use of World Bank guarantees, technical assistance and capacity building to help bridge infrastructure and financing gaps and advance climate adaptation, the department said.
No new regional financing package was announced after the meeting.
Thailand’s Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas separately called on the World Bank to help Asean remove regulatory barriers holding back the Asean Power Grid, a long-planned network of cross-border electricity interconnections intended to expand regional power trade and allow greater use of renewable energy.
Ekniti also urged the bank to support climate adaptation through knowledge-sharing and dedicated projects, according to Thailand’s official briefing on the annual meetings.
The discussions highlight a persistent problem for Southeast Asia: large amounts of capital will be needed to decarbonise power systems and make economies more resilient to extreme weather, but many projects struggle to attract commercial investment because of regulatory uncertainty, project risks or low expected returns.
The Asean Power Grid (APG) alone could require about US$800 billion in generation and transmission investment by 2045, according to the World Bank. Its APG Financing Initiative, coordinated with the Asian Development Bank, is intended to develop bankable interconnection projects and use instruments including guarantees, concessional loans and blended finance to attract public and private capital.
The World Bank has said stronger regional electricity links could lower costs, improve energy security and make it easier for countries to integrate variable renewable power such as solar and wind.
It is already backing regional integration through its US$2.5 billion Accelerating Sustainable Energy Transition programme in East Asia and the Pacific, while earlier financing for the Asean Centre for Energy has supported technical studies and preparation of power-grid projects.
Adaption harder to finance
Climate adaptation presents a different financing challenge.
Unlike renewable energy projects that can generate revenue from electricity sales, investments such as flood protection, water security and climate-resilient infrastructure often provide wider economic benefits without producing predictable financial returns for private investors.
That leaves governments carrying much of the cost at a time when fiscal space across many developing economies is constrained by higher borrowing costs and debt burdens.
Thailand’s own climate financing needs illustrate the scale of the challenge. The World Bank estimated the country will require about US$219 billion in additional climate-related investment over the next 25 years, including US$105 billion for adaptation and US$96 billion for mitigation.
It expects most adaptation spending to come from the public sector, while private capital is likely to fund the majority of mitigation investment.
The issue has featured prominently in discussions around this week’s Bangkok meetings, where finance officials have been examining how guarantees, concessional capital and other risk-sharing tools can be used to draw private money into clean-energy and adaptation projects.
A meeting of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action on the sidelines of the annual meetings included a workshop dedicated to blended finance for clean energy and adaptation, looking at how public and development finance could reduce risks sufficiently to bring private investors into projects.
Banga has made private capital mobilisation a central part of the World Bank’s strategy, arguing that constrained government budgets mean development institutions need to use public funds and guarantees to attract larger pools of commercial investment.
The World Bank Group said it mobilised US$112 billion in private capital in the fiscal year to June 2026, up from $35 billion four years earlier. It also issued more than US$25 billion in guarantees during the year.
The Bangkok discussions did not set out a timetable or funding target for expanded Asean-World Bank cooperation, but participating governments said they wanted the dialogue to lead to more sustained engagement and concrete investment opportunities across the region.
