AIIB clarifies label, to give loans sensibly

HONG KONG — The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank or AIIB is not “China’s bank”, but a multilateral development institution operating by international standards,itspresident,JinLiqun, said at a financial forum in Hong Kong last week.

“The AIIB is a bank initiated by China, but it’s not ‘China’s bank’,” Jin said, adding it was created through negotiations of all the 57 founding member-countries and now has 84 members.

It is a multilateral development bank “operating by international standards and with 21-century governance”, he said.

“We will work with all the countries regardless of their membership ... We recruit professionals from across the world ... (and) we have international competitive bidding (that) any company can participate in,” Jin said in a dialogue on the impact of China’s policies on global economic development during the twoday Asian Financial Forum that concluded on Tuesday.

According to Jin, China’s idea to propose this new bank is “to supplement the efforts ofexistinginstitutionslikethe World Bank and the ADB.”

On the relationship between the AIIB and other

The AIIB is a bank initiated by China, but it’s not ‘China’s bank’ .”

president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

Jin Liqun, Chinese-proposed initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative, Jin said that since lots of projects related to the initiative are for AIIB membercountries, the bank is “dutybound” to support these projects.

However, he stressed that the AIIB will consider financing the projects only if they are financially sustainable, environmentally friendly and acceptable to local people.

“We are not going to do loss-making business ... We are not going to do an infrastructure project leaving a big footprint in the environment ...(and)weshouldbringbenefit to the local people, not create problems,” Jin said.