Infrastructure sat at the center of the World Bank Group’s message at its 2026 Annual Meetings in Bangkok. In his plenary remarks on October 16, 2026, World Bank Group President Ajay Banga described physical and human infrastructure as the first foundation of a jobs strategy, and set out how much the institution is putting into power, water, transport and digital links, and how much private money it is drawing in alongside.
For executives and investors, the figures show where development finance is heading and where co-investment opportunities are likely to appear.
What the World Bank Group committed
Banga said employers need “electricity, water, transport, and digital connections,” and people need health, education and skills. He said that last year the Bank Group committed $40 billion, nearly one-third of its financing, to these foundations. The speech did not break that figure down between physical and human infrastructure.
On private capital, Banga said the Bank Group mobilized roughly $35 billion in fiscal year 2022, the year before its current workplan began, and $112 billion last year, a threefold increase. He said total financing, including the Bank Group’s own, exceeded $230 billion.
He named three infrastructure programs with targets. Mission 300, run with the African Development Bank, aims to bring electricity to 300 million people in Africa by 2030; Banga said 59 million have gained access so far. On water, the Bank Group aims to improve water security for up to one billion people by 2030 and has committed to reaching 400 million of them. He said 20 country compacts give a path to reach 150 million people with clean water.
Corridors and partners
Banga highlighted economic corridors, where he said the Bank Group launched 52 new projects last year, up from 20 three years earlier. He named the European Commission’s Global Gateway, Italy’s Mattei Plan and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation as partners. His one named example was Lobito, a route built mainly for minerals that he said is increasingly carrying farmers’ crops to market.
He also pointed to the tools the Bank Group is using to address barriers such as currency risk: guarantees, equity and local currency financing.
The private investment baseline
The most recent full dataset on private investment in infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries is the World Bank’s Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI) 2024 Annual Report. It found that PPI investment reached $100.7 billion across 315 projects in 2024, up 16 percent from $87.1 billion in 2023, the first time it exceeded $100 billion since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. That equals 0.27 percent of the combined GDP of those countries.
Energy led with $67.9 billion across 217 projects, followed by transport at $20.6 billion and information and communications technology at $10.5 billion. East Asia and the Pacific drew the most, about $57 billion across 99 projects. The number of countries with new commitments fell to 58 from 68 in 2023, a sign that private money remains concentrated in a limited set of markets.
The PPI database had not published a 2025 report at the time of writing. When it does, it will show whether the mobilization gains Banga described are reaching more countries.
