ADB's $20bn Digital Highway targets landlocked connectivity costs

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on 3 May, in a release issued from Samarkand, that it would mobilise US$20 billion by 2035 for digital corridors, data infrastructure and AI-ready economies under an Asia-Pacific Digital Highway, alongside US$50 billion for cross-border power grids.

Nearly six months on, the release names no recipient country, no project and no first tranche. For corridor operators and ministries, what it changes is the size of a lender's stated appetite and the targets the lender has set itself, including a cut of about 40 per cent in connectivity costs in remote and landlocked areas.

What the US$20 billion is for

ADB expects to finance US$15 billion from its own resources and raise US$5 billion through cofinancing, the release says. The money is to go to terrestrial and subsea fibre networks, satellite links and regional data centres, with policy and regulatory support, including on cybersecurity risk management, and skills programmes for digital and AI readiness.

The targets for 2035 are first-time broadband for 200 million people and faster, more reliable connectivity for another 450 million. The release also promises 4 million jobs and the cost cut of about 40 per cent in remote and landlocked areas, without saying how the cut will be measured or against which baseline.

A Center for AI Innovation and Development in Seoul, backed by a US$20 million contribution from the Republic of Korea, is to train about 3 million people in digital and AI skills by 2035. "Energy and digital access will define the region's future," Masato Kanda, ADB's president, said in the release.

Where the corridor fits

The release names only Uzbekistan, as the place of issue, and Korea, as a funder. Central Asia enters through the power side: the US$50 billion Pan-Asia Power Grid Initiative builds on the CAREC Energy Strategy 2030 among other programmes, and targets about 20 GW of renewable energy integrated across borders and 22,000 circuit-kilometres of transmission lines by 2035. ADB expects to finance about half of that from its own resources, with up to US$10 million of technical assistance for regulatory alignment, common technical standards and feasibility studies.

For the digital side, the nearest ADB document is the GSMA study the bank published on 13 October, which placed Türkiye and Kazakhstan among the leaders of 34 developing Asian markets on the Mobile Connectivity Index and Tajikistan second from bottom, and urged cheaper spectrum and service-neutral licences, as Corridor Signal reported. The May release gives no ranking of its own.

Tajikistan has already set out what it wants from such a programme. Its Communication Service presented a draft Dushanbe Call to Action on resilient connectivity for landlocked developing countries at the ITU's regional forum on 29 and 30 September, listing lower-cost digital transit, financing for bankable projects and green data centres among six areas, as Corridor Signal reported. The ITU's draft outcome report put Partner2Connect pledges for the CIS region at US$2.29 billion, with progress reported on 28 per cent of them.

What an operator can and cannot take from it

An operator or a ministry can take three things from the release. First, the sectors: fibre, satellite and regional data centres are named, so a cross-border backbone or a landing station fits the stated scope where a national mobile network does not. Second, the ratio: three dollars of ADB money for every dollar of cofinancing on the digital side, a higher own-resource share than the roughly half the bank plans for the power grids. Third, the measure: the bank has set itself targets for first-time users and for the cost of connectivity in remote and landlocked areas, so a project that can show either has a case.

What they cannot take is a pipeline. The release gives no allocation by country or subregion, no application route and no date for a first project. The EBRD, whose telecom strategy for 2025 to 2029 says it will seek enhanced collaboration with ADB, particularly in Central Asia and the Caucasus, had by September disclosed one corridor backbone loan of its own, for Tajikistan, with a board date of 16 December, as Corridor Signal reported. Corridor Signal found no ADB project disclosed under the Digital Highway name by 26 October.

Dates to watch: 9 to 27 November 2026, the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Doha, where four corridor states are candidates for two Radio Regulations Board seats; and 16 December 2026, the EBRD board date for Tajikistan Rural Broadband.