Hwang Ki-yeon, left, CEO of the Export-Import Bank of Korea, and Masato Kanda, president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), pose during a signing ceremony for a joint platform to stabilize critical mineral supply chains on the sidelines of the ADB annual meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Sunday. Courtesy of Korea Eximbank
The Export-Import Bank of Korea (Korea Eximbank) has signed a $500 million (735 billion won) financing agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to support critical minerals projects in developing countries, the state-run lender said Monday.
The agreement was signed by Korea Eximbank CEO Hwang Ki-yeon and ADB President Masato Kanda the previous day in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on the sidelines of the ADB's annual meeting.
Under the deal, Eximbank will participate in a newly established ADB-led financing platform called the Critical Minerals-to-Manufacturing Financing Partnership Facility (CMM FPF), aimed at strengthening critical minerals supply chains across Asia and the Pacific.
Eximbank plans to commit up to $500 million by 2029 through its supply chain stabilization fund, using a mix of loans, guarantees and investments. ADB aims to scale up the overall financing pool to between $2 billion and $3 billion.
The two institutions will jointly identify promising critical minerals projects in developing countries and provide cofinancing across the value chain, including exploration, extraction, processing and refining.
They will also structure finance packages combining loans, guarantees and technical assistance for critical mineral projects on a case-by-case basis.
Eximbank said it would prioritize projects that involve Korean companies through equity participation or long-term offtake agreements for key resources, in line with efforts to strengthen supply chain resilience.
"This agreement marks the first case of a policy finance framework establishing a foundation for jointly supporting critical minerals projects and stabilizing supply chains with an international organization that has strong global credibility and regional expertise," Hwang said.
"We will work closely with ADB to help Korean companies enter resource-rich developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region, where commercialization in areas such as exploration, mining and refining remains underdeveloped, and to link these efforts to stabilization of supply chains," he added.
Source: Korea Times News
