Vice President of the AIIB to give briefing on its role and future strategy

The establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has been seen as a shift from the traditional US-led Bretton Woods system to the East, given that it is the first multilateral institution led by China. With 77 members, including the UK, Germany and Sweden, but the promise of 85 by the end of the year, the AIIB is evolving fast.

The AIIB’s President, Jin Liqun recently revealed the aim was to rival lenders such as Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank. Unlike the World Bank and the ADB however, the AIIB has no overarching objective to reduce poverty and instead remains broadly focused on projects that generate a commercial return or upgrade economic efficiency. Power station, roads, railways, urban development and telecoms are areas of interest.

In an interview with The Voice of America, Dr. Joachim von Amsberg, AIIB’s Vice President, Policy and Strategy, said that the AIIB has become more accepted as a truly multilateral financial institution and at the World Economic Forum on ASEAN stated that the bank “plays a complementary role to the ADB led by Japan and the World Bank led by the US. These three international development and financial institutions need to work closely and coordinate their development projects in order to optimize their impact and generate greater positive changes.”

Dr. Joachim von Amsberg will discuss the role of the AIIB and its future strategy as well as private sector engagement with Asia House corporate members.

His primary responsibilities at the AIIB are to develop and monitor the implementation of the Bank’s strategic agenda and translate this agenda into the Bank’s lending programme and budget; to develop the policies and procedures for the Bank’s operational investment portfolio; to support the implementation of the Bank’s operational policies, including environment and social, procurement and financial management; and to oversee compliance with all of the Bank’s operational policies.

Before joining the AIIB, he worked with the World Bank for 25 years where he was in charge of development finance, operations policy and country services, the Bank’s modernisation and reform agenda. He was also the Country Director for Indonesia and the Philippines.

This briefing is for corporate members only.

To register for this private briefing please contact Conor Paterson, Business & Policy Team at conor.paterson@asiahouse.co.uk or call 0207 307 5439.