The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will approve more than US$26 billion of loans in each year of 2009 and 2010, more than doubled from that of 2008, an ADB Vice President told Xinhua on Friday.

"The budgeted loans are a substantial increase from what was previously planned of, which is also a challenge for ADB," said ADB Vice President Zhao Xiaoyu.

The loan increase came after ADB Board of Governors approved the largest capital increase in its 43-year history -- from US$55 billion to a staggering US$165 billion.

But Zhao also expressed concerns of whether these loans would be effectively "absorbed" by the recipient countries and whether there would be enough projects for the money to be used.

ADB approved US$10.5 billion of loans in 2008, a 5.3-percent increase over the previous year.

The 2008 amount is the highest in ADB's history, much of which is used to its development members to deal with the impact of the global crisis.

"ADB responded quickly (to the global financial crisis), allocating over four billion dollars of additional resources to support the efforts of its developing member countries," ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said in an annual report.

In 2008, India was the largest borrower with US$2.9 billion, or 27.4 percent of the total loans ADB extended last year.

ADB, established in 1966, is owned and financed by its 67 members, of which 48 are from the region and 19 from other parts of the globe. It's an international development finance institution whose mission is to help its developing members reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their people, according to the bank's profile.