AIIB pledges critical infrastructure investments across Asia amid global turbulence
New president says private capital and international cooperation essential to funding infrastructure projects across continent
Zou Jiayi, who took the baton of the multilateral development bank in mid-January from inaugural president Jin Liqun, called for investments to augment country-specific tax revenues and promote industrial development, putting economies on a stronger footing as importers and exporters.
“We [the world] are experiencing a difficult time [and] we see there are a lot of challenges here,” she told a session of the annual Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong.
“Markets are very hesitant during the turbulent global environment, but people do need investment, they do need resilient infrastructure,” she said in English.
“It is a duty of development banks to invest and support industrialisation so they can also provide goods and services to the global market.”
Public resources “alone will not be sufficient,” added Zou, who is also the chairwoman of the 111-member bank’s board. Private capital would be crucial, along with support from other development banks, she said.