Beijing-based AIIB opens office in Abu Dhabi
The China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank ( AIIB) on Thursday announced the opening of its first office outside its Beijing headquarters, in what appears to be an effort to negotiate China’s Covid-19-related policies including restrictions on international travel and strict quarantine requirements for returnees.
The new “interim” office will be in Abu Dhabi, one of the multilateral bank’s founding members, an AIIB release said on Thursday.
The West Asian emirate was chosen as the location keeping in mind its connectivity with many of the 105 members of the bank, which was formally established in 2015 and became operational the following year.
“The AIIB Board of Directors has approved the establishment of an Interim Operational Hub (the Hub), the bank’s first overseas office,” the multilateral lender said in a statement on Thursday.
“The preferred location for the hub will be Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), pending formal agreement to be finalised during the coming weeks,” the statement said, adding the “hub” location best fits the bank’s selection criteria, “in particular superb connectivity to the bank’s global membership”.
Given that the bank now has a portfolio of 181 projects in 33 member countries valued at $35.7 billion, China’s strict zeroCovid policy, marked by lockdowns, mass testing and strict quarantine policies would have likely hampered that “commercial momentum”, especially the monitoring of its ongoing projects.
AIIB officials maintain that the bank follows strict protocols and good practices during the implementation of projects it funds, and doing so remotely - in the backdrop of travel restrictions - might not always be adequate and efficient.
India, the second largest shareholder in AIIB after China, has emerged as the bank’s largest borrower since 2016, bagging some 34 projects valued at over $8.7 billion until now.