Beyond Borders: How China’s Development Solutions Could Shape a Greener and Resilient Asia

ADB’s report shows how proven solutions from China in flood resilience, waste-to-energy, elder care, air pollution and river management can be adapted across Asia to reduce costs, risks and development challenges. It urges governments, development partners and private investors to combine policy reform, innovative finance, technology and local adaptation to scale sustainable and inclusive development.

The Asian Development Bank's Success Beyond Borders: Replication Study Series, Volume 2, offers a practical message for governments, development partners and businesses across Asia: countries do not always need to build development solutions from scratch. Drawing on ADB-supported projects in the People's Republic of China, the report examines how proven approaches can be adapted elsewhere. Its five cases cover urban flood resilience, waste-to-energy, elder care, air-quality improvement and river-basin management. The central lesson is that successful replication depends not simply on transferring technology, but on combining sound policies, appropriate financing, institutional capacity and private-sector participation with solutions tailored to local conditions.

Climate-resilient cities can deliver wider economic gains

ADB's experience with "sponge cities" shows how governments can tackle flooding while generating wider social and economic benefits. Instead of depending entirely on concrete drains and flood barriers, sponge cities use wetlands, floodplains, permeable surfaces and green spaces to absorb and store rainwater.

In Pingxiang, Jiangxi Province, this approach combined ecological restoration with conventional drainage infrastructure. The project reduced flood risks for more than 300,000 residents and improved access to markets, jobs and services for around 250,000 rural residents. In Yanji, the model was expanded through climate modelling, improved drainage, green infrastructure and urban planning, with the project expected to conserve nearly 5 million cubic metres of water annually.

The approach has already travelled beyond China. In Chennai, India, an ADB-supported flood-management project is expected by 2028 to directly benefit nearly 2 million people in flood-prone areas and indirectly benefit another 2.8 million through improved drainage. Thailand is also developing sponge-city strategies in five pilot cities.

For policymakers, the message is straightforward: climate-resilient infrastructure should be viewed as an economic investment rather than only as disaster spending. Well-designed projects can simultaneously reduce losses from flooding, improve public spaces, protect ecosystems and strengthen urban productivity.

Waste and population aging are creating new investment markets

The report also highlights opportunities created by two rapidly growing challenges: municipal waste and population aging. Global municipal solid waste reached about 2.1 billion tons in 2023 and could increase to 3.8 billion tons by 2050.

ADB-backed waste-to-energy projects demonstrate how cities can turn part of this liability into an economic resource. By 2014, 14 plants operated by China Everbright Environmental Energy Limited could process around 5.1 million tons of household waste annually, produce about 1.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by approximately 1.7 million tons a year.

The model was subsequently applied in Vietnam. The Can Tho waste-to-energy plant can process 400 tons of household waste every day and generate about 60 million kilowatt-hours of green electricity annually.

For private investors, such projects create opportunities in waste collection, treatment, electricity generation and pollution-control technology. But governments need predictable tariffs, reliable waste supplies, transparent contracts and strong environmental regulation to make projects commercially sustainable.

A similar market is developing around elder care. ADB-supported projects in the PRC include a $100 million program in Hebei and investments of $150 million each in Yichang and Xiangyang. The model prioritizes home-based care, supported by community services and institutional facilities, while integrating medical care, digital systems, rehabilitation and professional training.

Mongolia is now drawing on these experiences. For governments, aging therefore needs to be treated not only as a welfare challenge but also as a health, employment and infrastructure issue. Private companies could find opportunities in home care, rehabilitation, digital health, training and specialized facilities, provided affordability and service quality remain protected.

Clean-air investments show the power of policy and finance

ADB's Greater Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei air-quality program provides one of the report's strongest examples of large-scale impact. Since 2015, eight sovereign projects have involved about $2.55 billion in financing, including $100 million from the Green Climate Fund.

By 2023, average PM2.5 concentrations had fallen 44.2% from the 2015 baseline to 43 micrograms per cubic metre. Sulfur dioxide concentrations dropped 76.3% to 10 micrograms per cubic metre, while nitrogen oxide levels declined 34.8% to 30 micrograms per cubic metre. Once completed, the program is expected to avoid around 36 million tons of carbon-dioxide-equivalent emissions annually.

The important policy lesson is how these results were pursued. ADB combined regulatory reforms with project loans, results-based financing and financial-intermediation loans that helped smaller businesses obtain green finance. Investments covered cleaner energy, industrial efficiency, heating, transport, biogas and pollution control.

Mongolia, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam are among the countries that could apply elements of this experience. Development partners can support such replication by combining policy advice, concessional finance, private investment and technical expertise instead of financing isolated infrastructure projects.

Nature, finance and knowledge must become part of development strategy

ADB's river-basin experience demonstrates the economic importance of protecting natural assets. Between 2016 and 2025, the bank committed more than $4.1 billion to projects and technical assistance connected with the Yangtze River, covering water management, sustainable agriculture, ecosystem restoration and biodiversity.

These lessons helped shape the Yellow River Ecological Corridor and the Regional Flyway Initiative, which aims to catalyze $3 billion over a decade for wetland protection. The targeted wetlands provide ecosystem services to nearly 200 million people and support more than 50 million migratory waterbirds from over 201 species.

For policymakers, the implication is that rivers, wetlands and other ecosystems should increasingly be treated as productive economic assets supporting agriculture, fisheries, tourism, water security and climate resilience. Tools such as eco-compensation and natural-capital accounting can help governments include these benefits in investment decisions.

For development partners and businesses, the report ultimately recommends a shift from simply financing projects to building systems that can be scaled. Governments need country-specific assessments, stable regulation and stronger institutions; development banks can reduce investment risks and transfer knowledge across borders; and private companies can provide technology, capital and operational expertise.

The larger message is simple: as climate change, urbanization, pollution and population aging accelerate, Asia has less time and money for repeated trial and error. Adapting solutions that have already demonstrated results, while adjusting them carefully to local conditions, can reduce risks, mobilize private investment and turn individual projects into wider development gains.