ADB Head Calls for Science Investment as $70 Billion Push Connects Power and People

The $70 billion infrastructure programme sets out investment mobilisation through 2035, connecting the promise of cheaper generation with the physical networks required to deliver it.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Masato Kanda has called for greater investment in scientific research and the infrastructure that carries its benefits into everyday life, putting reliable electricity, digital access and human well-being at the centre of his message. Speaking at the Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum in Kyoto on Sunday, 4 October, he pointed to ADB's $50 billion Pan-Asia Power Grid Initiative and $20 billion Asia-Pacific Digital Highway as investments that can help turn discoveries into practical opportunities for communities across Asia and the Pacific.

Kanda joined leading scientists and industry figures for a plenary discussion covering rising energy demand, rapid technological change, competition for resources and geopolitical uncertainty. The STS Forum brings global leaders, researchers and policymakers together to examine how science shapes society, giving his appeal an audience whose decisions influence both the discoveries being pursued and the systems needed to make them useful. "Let us fund the curiosity that unlocks the breakthroughs of tomorrow," he said, calling for ambition in turning frontier science and artificial intelligence into human progress.

Cheaper Clean Energy Needs Stronger Grids

Electricity demand across Asia and the Pacific is climbing, with advanced computing and the data centres powering AI adding pressure to energy systems. Technological progress has reduced solar and wind generation costs by 80% to 90% over the past decade, making clean power more affordable, but shortages and constraints involving critical minerals, transmission networks and storage still limit how widely those gains can reach.

ADB's support for critical minerals covers the full journey from exploration and processing to manufacturing, recycling and circular use, addressing the supply chains needed to expand clean energy technologies. Its Pan-Asia Power Grid Initiative is financing regional electricity systems and connections across national borders, allowing power from places with abundant energy resources to reach major centres of demand. The $70 billion infrastructure programme sets out investment mobilisation through 2035, connecting the promise of cheaper generation with the physical networks required to deliver it.

Digital Access Must Come With Human Control

For remote communities and people with disabilities, dependable clean electricity and digital connectivity can open access to economic opportunities that are difficult to reach without those services. The $20 billion Asia-Pacific Digital Highway is designed to expand connectivity ready for AI and strengthen digital skills, recognising that access to a network becomes more useful when people have the knowledge to participate in the economy it supports.

Kanda's call for investment included a warning about the existential risks of rapidly advancing AI, placing strong human control at the heart of responsible development. His message linked technological capability with responsibility: the people building and deploying these systems must ensure their growing power serves human well-being, keeping societal benefits central to decisions about their use.

Research Funding Depends on Patience and Trust

Curiosity-driven research was another central concern in the speech, with Kanda urging sustained support for fundamental questions whose commercial value may be unclear at the start. Discoveries that eventually transform lives can begin with work that offers no immediate product or financial return, making patient funding essential to the path from scientific inquiry to practical progress.

Public trust carries equal weight in that process, requiring scientists and institutions to engage openly with society and demonstrate integrity in their work. Kanda's appeal brought research funding, infrastructure and accountability into the same conversation, asking decision-makers to support new knowledge and give people a clear reason to trust the changes it brings.