The Asian Development Assistance Board, ADAB, was created in January 1996 at the initiative of the then Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) in Beijing together with the World Bank Group (WBG) in Washington DC. Later that year the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila joined this initiative. Singapore was chosen as its operational seat. In October 2000 Mdm. Wu Yi, Head of MOFTEC and later Chinese State Councilor and Vice-Premier, issued a special directive that enabled the ADAB to move its operational and coordination centre from Singapore to the People’s Republic where it established bureaux in Liaoning, Zhejiang and Guangdong. The ADAB was formed as a strictly apolitical and not-for-profit entity with as main objective assisting the implementation of the “Strategic Compact”, a MOFTEC-WBG sub-program for the fundamental reform and renewal of economic, industrial and social collaboration between “East and West”. In practical terms, the ADAB was to advise, guide and assist Western entities with investments or with the establishment of a permanent presence in the Asia-Indo-Pacific Area, particularly within the People’s Republic of China. Funding of projects was initially divided between ADAB’s initiators/sponsors (72%) and the benefiting parties (28%). Between early 1997 and 2010 the foundation successfully completed a total of almost USD 2bn in initial FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) projects within its geographical territory. Several of these projects were introduced or recommended by the WBG, foreign Chambers of Commerce, diplomatic missions in the target countries, and leading financial institutions. As of January 2011 ADAB’s objectives and operations have significantly changed. The original sponsorship of its initiators was altered into an arrangement whereby the ADAB became their project DACON- consultant. The organisation, now self-governing whilst strictly maintaining its not-for-profit economic status, is -in accordance with its Founding Chapter- not to be involved in any manufacturing, trading, transportation, financing, sales, marketing or related commercial activity, nevertheless allowed participating as minority stakeholder in selected projects. Since 2011 the ADAB initiates its own projects that are mainly directed to the development in Greater China and the Asia-Indo-Pacific region of education, public healthcare, urbanisation, infrastructure, high-tech industries, transportation, artificial intelligence, automation and robotics. Another main task is providing recommendation and guidance on and to Sino-Foreign Joint Ventures and on outward-bound investments particularly from private or corporate (non-State related) Chinese sources. The ADAB also acts as a conduit between tertiary educational, scientific and research institutes in both the European Union and Asia with emphasis on issues regarding the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, Trademarks, Copyrights and Patents as well as on matters of Franchising, Trade Secrets and Technology Transfer in the People’s Republic of China. Initially registered in The Netherlands and in Singapore, since early 2017 the ADAB maintains its legal E.U.-Executive Centre in Tallinn, the capital of the Estonian Republic. Project coordination is directed from Shenyang in China’s northeastern Liaoning province.