SINGAPORE – Singapore’s national blended finance initiative achieved its first close on Sept 8, with US$510 million (S$655.7 million) in committed capital to fund green and sustainable infrastructure in South-east and South Asia.

Such infrastructure projects could include renewable energy plants and storage, electric vehicles, transport, and water and waste management projects, among other sectors critical to the regions’ energy transition, said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

MAS runs the national initiative, Financing Asia’s Transition Partnership (Fast-P), launched in 2023.

The aim of Fast-P is to bring together public, private and philanthropic capital to help finance Asia’s green transition, with the aim of eventually raising up to US$5 billion from these sources.

Many of these projects are not readily supported by commercial lenders because of low investor familiarity.

Blended finance usually starts with capital from public or philanthropic sources as a catalyst to spur the private sector – which holds most of the world’s wealth – to invest in sustainable development.

The US$510 million will fund one of Fast-P’s three pillars, which is focused on green investments. Called the Green Investments Partnership, it is the first of the three funds to close.

The other two are on accelerating the energy transition and industrial transformation, which will focus on emissions-intensive sectors such as cement and steel and on carbon removal technologies.

“The Green Investments Partnership will deploy debt financing for climate-related, marginally bankable, sustainable infrastructure in South-east and South Asia,” MAS said.

Debt financing refers to businessesborrowing money, usually via instruments such as bonds and loans.

The US$510 million came from global and regional private, public and philanthropic institutions, such as Temasek and HSBC, and the Australian and European governments.

The other investors and financiers include the International Finance Corporation, the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank, British International Investment, Bank of the Philippine Islands and Allied Climate Partners – a philanthropic investment organisation.

The Australian government is supporting through Export Finance Australia, which provides finance for export trade and overseas infrastructure projects. The European Commission is supporting Fast-P through its Global Gateway programme, which aims to narrow the investment gap globally.

Debt financing platform Pentagreen Capital manages the green investments pillar.

The three pillars of Fast-P were conceived to address the region’s pressing climate finance gap by using blended and tiered capital to crowd in finance at scale, MAS said.

In late 2024, the Singapore Government pledged up to US$500 million to Fast-P, in an effort to decarbonise Asia. Fast-P set up an office and appointed a chief executive in mid-2025.

Singapore’s central bank said: “By de-risking infrastructure investments in South-east and South Asia for international investors and financiers, Fast-P aims to unlock capital for innovative and marginally bankable infrastructure.

“(They) have traditionally struggled to attract financing due to perceived risks, with gaps that are more acute in the project development and construction phases.”

More on this topic