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AIIB complementary to ADB, World Bank: China's Finance Minister

Xinhua, March 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

China's finance minister said the planned Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), instead of being a competitor, will be compatible with established international lenders.

The AIIB will complement other multilateral financial institutions including the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank and bring mutual benefits to Asian countries and the world, Finance Minister Lou Jiwei told Xinhua on Friday.

Lou said the AIIB was proposed amid enormous demand for infrastructure investment in Asia and will not compete with existing organizations that aim to relieve poverty.

"History revisited, the establishment of regional investment banks including the ADB and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development did not weaken established [institutions], rather they reinforced the multilateral financial organizations and more vigorously push forward the global economy," Lou said.

As a significant member of the World Bank and the ADB, China will continue to support the existing banks in their work of global poverty relief and development, Lou added.

He described the establishment of the bank as a "constructive move" that will complement the current international economic order and enable China to shoulder more global responsibility.

Twenty-one countries including China, India and Singapore signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) last October in Beijing to build the bank, to improve lagging infrastructure in emerging Asian economies.

As far, the AIIB has already had 27 prospective founding members.

Lou said although the deadline of founder application is March 31, other countries can still join the bank as common members after this date.

The AIIB will draw on the experience of established banks and set up a three-tier structure including a council, a board of directors and management, Lou said, promising a supervising mechanism to ensure sufficient, open and transparent policy-making.

It is expected that the AIIB will be formally established by the end of 2015. Endit