Deputy Prime Minister of South Korea Attended Inaugural Meeting of AIIB

The China-led development bank was formally established in Beijing on 25 December.

“We already have a very good pipeline of co-financing projects (with other worldwide development banks) and stand alone projects”, the AIIB’s inaugural president, Jin Liquin, who was previously a high-ranking official at the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), told journalists on Sunday.

“ADB will cooperate closely with AIIB in supporting the development of the Asia Pacific region, drawing on ADB’s 50 years of experience and expertise and with extensive network of 31 field offices in developing member countries” said Mr. Nakao.

The AIIB is expected to offer a loan around $10-15 billion annually.

During his stay in Beijing, the Deputy Prime Minister had talks with Chinese Financial Minister Lou Jiwei to discuss how to add stability to the real economy and financial market of Northeast Asia in the present era of uncertainties.

He also said China has no veto over the bank.

This will be the first board of directors for the new bank in which 57 members joined as founding members.

AIIB’s inaugural president, Chinese banker Jin Liqun, said yesterday that Asia still faces “severe connectivity gaps and significant infrastructure bottlenecks”.

Under the bank’s charter, the board of directors is chaired by the AIIB president.

While Mr Jin did not address the issue of whether China will have a monopoly on the presidency, Dr Wihtol said “rotating the nationality of the AIIB presidency would be a bold and welcome move and would set a new standard for other global financial institutions to follow“.

The new bank should fully leverage its strength as a cooperation platform to explore diverse and multidimensional cooperation models, as well as cooperation on financial resources and technical know-how, for deeper integration of regional and global industrial and value chains, he said. Before his selection as President-designate, Mr. Jin served as Secretary-General of the Multilateral Interim Secretariat, the entity tasked to prepare the legal, policy and administrative frameworks and undertake other preparatory work required for the establishment of AIIB.

For Nepal, a new bank formed with the initiative of cash-rich China can be an additional source of finance for the country’s poor infrastructure sector.

China is the biggest contributor to the AIIB, chipping in around 30% of the bank’s $100 billion in capital and holding 26% of the voting rights.