Chinese premier touts infrastructure’s importance, signs Asian bank MoU

21 countries mark step towards establishing Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

BEIJING:

Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed on the importance of infrastructure as he addressed delegates after a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed involving 21 countries including China. The MoU is a step towards setting up an Asian infrastructure lender seen as a counterweight to Western-backed international development banks.

The signatories put their names to establish the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) at a ceremony in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

The institution, whose development has been driven by China, will be based in Beijing according to the official news agency Xinhua, and is expected to have initial capital of $50 billion.

It is intended to address the region’s burgeoning demand for transportation, dams, ports and other facilities, officials say.

“In China, we have a folk saying,” Chinese President Xi Jinping told delegates. “If you would like to get rich, build roads first, and I believe that is a very vivid description of the importance of infrastructure to economic development.”

China’s rise to become the world’s second-largest economy has been accompanied by a desire to play a greater role in international organisations, such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the ADB, which have been dominated by Europe, the US and Japan.

But other than China, among Asia’s 10 largest economies only India and Singapore signed the AIIB memorandum, with three of the top five – Japan, South Korea and Indonesia – notably absent.

The Japanese head of the Asian Development Bank, another regional lender, said after the signing ceremony that questions remained over the AIIB’s structure and that it needed to adhere to international standards.

“It is vitally important that AIIB adopt international best practices in procurement and environmental and social safeguard standards on its projects and programmes,” ADB President Takehiko Nakao said in a statement.

The Japanese government has expressed concern, while the US is reportedly fiercely opposed to the AIIB.

China maintained it is open to more countries joining, and said it was still in talks with the US and Japan on the issue.

“We have maintained communication with the US, Japan, Indonesia and other countries,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular briefing.

“We welcome the participation of other countries in the process, and we will stay in contact with all relevant parties.”

Xi moved to reassure after the signing. “For the AIIB, its operation needs to follow multilateral rules and procedures,” he said.

“We have also to learn from the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank and other existing multilateral development institutions in their good practices.” 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2014.

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