Development banks gather in Bangkok

Public development banks from around the world will gather in Bangkok, Thailand, for the sixth edition of the Finance in Common Summit (FiCS), which will focus on mobilizing financing for sustainable growth and resilience.

The summit will be held at the United Nations Convention Center in Bangkok from 31 March to 2 April 2027, bringing together more than 500 public development banks and their stakeholders.

The event will be co-hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), with support from Agence Française de Développement and other regional and global partners. Its theme is “Delivering Sustainable Growth for a More Resilient Future.”

It will be the first FiCS summit to be held in Asia, bringing together leaders of public development banks that collectively manage about $23 trillion in assets.

The organizers said the scale of these institutions gives them significant capacity to mobilize targeted investments and support development projects as countries face growing needs and tighter fiscal space.

The Bangkok summit will focus on project origination, innovative transactions, and concrete networking and investment opportunities.

“History has placed a clear duty before us,” said ADB president Masato Kanda. “The international system is fragmenting, needs are rising, and delay carries a heavy price. In Bangkok, the world’s public development banks must marshal the full weight of their financial strength and resolve. The decisions we take there can shape the security and opportunity of billions of people for a generation.”

Finance in Common is a global forum for public development banks, which are publicly mandated institutions that finance long-term economic and social priorities.

Launched in 2020, the initiative aims to coordinate investments, strengthen common practices and give public development banks a stronger voice in international economic discussions. Its members invest about $2.5 trillion annually, originating projects and leveraging private financing.

“Bringing the Finance in Common coalition to Asia for the first time marks a critical turning point. Public development banks have played and are still playing a critical role in the sustainable development of the region. Together, they form a unique global financial architecture, bridging international ambitions with real-world execution,” said Finance in Common chairman Rémy Rioux.

“In Bangkok, our goal is clear: keep a long-term, collective and transformational perspective and deliver bankable, high-impact investments that drive sustainable growth where it matters most,” he added.

The 2027 summit follows previous gatherings in Paris in 2020, Rome in 2021, Abidjan in 2022, Cartagena in 2023 and Cape Town in 2025.

More than 2,000 participants are expected to attend the Bangkok meeting, including public development bank executives, senior government officials, regulators, business leaders, institutional investors, civil society representatives, researchers and international organizations.

The program will include plenary discussions, working sessions, investment pitches and meetings between financial institutions and prospective partners.

The Bangkok gathering aims to serve as a “Summit of Delivery,” connecting public and private financiers with investment opportunities across Asia and the Pacific.

The summit will also seek to strengthen the role of public development banks in financing nature-positive investments, building resilience to climate change and supporting clean energy.

It will advance issues addressed during ADB’s 2026 chairship of the Heads of Multilateral Development Banks and the 2026 Annual Meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group.

Key priorities include mobilizing more private capital, sharing and co-financing projects with other investors, reducing duplication among institutions and maintaining long-term investment during economic crises.