Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) President Liqun Jin hoped that the US may join the Bank when president-elect Donald Trump is in power.
Pakistan is also a founding member of China-led Asian Bank that was going to have a major role for the infrastructure development in the developing countries. In an interview, he reassured bank’s maximum support to the countries like Pakistan which have demonstrated well in recent years strengthening their domestic economy.
Liqun said the bank was willing to welcome new members. Very soon, the curtain would be drawn on the shortlist of the new members whose membership will take effect from January next year.
The objectives of the AIIB include assisting in the development of the smaller economies of the world no matter where located. The major consideration in extending facilities to governments or state members is whether such fund would be used for benefit of Asia or assist in bettering Asian economy and also that of the borrowing country.
‘But we have a duty and obligation to ensure that we don’t give impossible conditions to enable them utilize the funding and incentives of the bank. Every member state borrowing right is based not on the GDP but on shareholding and China has highest shareholding with 30pc of the total volume’, he added.
Right now, China is like a non-borrowing state member because if it does, it might crowd out other members that somehow need the fund more. But for the qualified borrower, the major plank for consent is on need and importance and not on shareholding capacity only. That implies that if a state needs to borrow and the AIIB is convinced that the need is compelling and there is prospect for profit in the targeted project the funding will be used and the request would be granted as long as there was the collateral economic potential of the project.”
AIIB funding of project is predicated on factors like the sustainability, the environmental friendliness which implies how the project would not cause a serious imbalance in environmental protection. But in situations where the importance would impact and encourage development and fight poverty, the environmental impact factor might be played down provided it is not so weighty to create another big problem.
The last factor is the social acceptability – implying that the people of the community must be ok with it and it must target to improve their livelihood.
