AIIB will uphold high standards
- By Wang Hui
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E-mail China Daily, April 30, 2015
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The signing ceremony of memorandum of understanding on establishing the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is held in Beijing, Oct 24 2014. [Photo/Xinhua] |
Since last month, the China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has been constantly in the global spotlight. The popularity of the bank culminated on April 15 when a total of 57 countries were approved as founding members.
The number of founding members exceeded expectations. The AIIB's attractiveness has aroused uneasiness and even acrimony among those who still harbor a Cold War mentality. Under such circumstances, China, as the initiator of the bank, should remain sober-minded when it sets out to design the architecture of the bank with member countries.
In the months to come, the AIIB will focus on establishing its charter, governance structure, innovative management design and funding mechanism. It has vowed to learn from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank and other international financial institutions.
Over the years, these international lenders have accumulated many good experiences and practices with regards to governance structure, environmental evaluation, procurement, debt sustainability and project management. Their experience will help the fledgling multilateral lender to lay down its own mark.
On the other hand, the AIIB should cast aside the widely denounced practices of current international lenders and blaze a new trail by ushering in the best practices that feature efficient and effective governance. China should serve as a bridge to coordinate the interests of the different parties so that the rights and interests of all 57 founding members can be respected and guaranteed.
China has rich experience in infrastructure development both at home and abroad. It has huge foreign reserves, which could be used to fill in the funding gap needed to break the infrastructure bottleneck in Asia. Last week, China set a good example in this aspect by allocating $46 billion to infrastructure construction projects in Pakistan during President Xi Jinping's state visit to Islamabad.
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