IAS Gyan

Daily News Analysis

Asian infrastructure bank

11th January, 2022 Economy

Figure 4: no copyright infringement intended

Context:

  • Urjit patel, the former governor of the reserve bank of india (rbi), has been appointed vice governor of the asian infrastructure investment bank (aiib).
  • He will be one of the five aiib vice presidents for a three-year term.

 

About asian infrastructure investment bank (aiib)

  • For the first time, china's head of state xi jinping proposed an asian infrastructure bank at the apec summit in bali in 2013.
  • Aiib began operations in 2016 with 57 founding members (37 regions and 20 non-regions).

Members:

  • There are 105 members.
  • India is a founding member.
  • It is a multilateral development bank working to improve social and economic outcomes in asia and beyond.

Shareholders and voting rights:

  • China is the largest shareholder of banks, accounting for 26.06 percent of voting rights.
  • India is the second largest shareholder with 7.5%, followed by russia with 5.93% and germany with 4.5%.

Headquarters:

Beijing, china.

 Structure:

  • Banks are run by a governing body consisting of a governor and a vice president.
  • All the power of a bank rests with the board of directors, the highest decision-making body under the articles of incorporation.
  • Bank staff are elected by aiib shareholders for a five-year term and are headed by a president who can be re-elected once.
  • The president is supported by five vice presidents in charge of policy and strategy, investment operations, finance and management, as well as senior management including the corporate secretariat and legal advisors.

Objective:

  • To create prosperity and improve infrastructure connectivity in asia through investment in infrastructure and other production sectors to promote sustainable economic development.
  • Promote regional cooperation and partnerships in tackling development challenges through close cooperation with other multilateral and bilateral development agencies.

Priority:

  • The world bank's priority is projects that promote sustainable infrastructure and support countries that want to meet their environmental and development goals.
  • Banks are funding projects connecting countries in the region and cross-border infrastructure projects for central asian roads, railroads, ports, energy pipelines, telecommunications, southeast asia, south asia and the middle east.
  • Banking priorities also include mobilizing private capital and promoting partnerships with other multilateral development banks, governments, private donors and others to stimulate private capital investment.

India and aiib

  • India is a founding member of the aiib and has the second highest vote after china.
  • Aiib has approved 28 projects in india, totaling us $ 6.7 billion.
  • The energy and transportation sector has received most of aiib's funding.
  • An example of the aiib project is the rural road connection initiative, which benefits approximately 1.5 million rural residents in madhya pradesh, india.

Recent projects

  • Aiib has approved a $ 356.67 million loan to the government of india to help expand chennai's subway system. The project involves building a new corridor on the chennai subway network as part of phase 2 of the chennai metro rail.
  • In addition to infrastructure, support for green projects and public health initiatives during the covid 19 pandemic has recently received attention.
  • In october 2021, india applied for a loan from aiib and adb to raise 667 million doses of covid19
  • Adb is expected to be $ 1.5 billion and aiib is expected to be approximately $ 500 million under the pacific vaccine access facility (apvax) of the adb asia initiative.