ADB President Takehiko Nakao has congratulated the founding members and the first president of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) Jin Liqun.
Published : 16 Jan 2016, 08:50 PM
Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) issued a media release on Saturday promising cooperation with the new international development bank while Chinese President Xi Jinping was launching it in Beijing.
“ADB will cooperate closely with AIIB in supporting the development of the Asia
Pacific region, drawing on ADB’s 50 years of experience and expertise and with extensive network of 31 field offices in developing member countries,” Nakao said in the release.
The ADB said Nakao and Liqun in two meetings last year agreed to the need to fill large infrastructure gap in the Asia and Pacific region, the critical role of infrastructure in supporting sustainable development and poverty reduction, and the importance of strong policies to ensure the environmental and social sustainability of projects.
It said it has been assisting the Multilateral Secretariat throughout last year to prepare the new institution’s various operational policies such as guidelines for environmental and social safeguard and for procurement.
The ADB has started identifying potential cofinancing projects with the AIIB in areas like transport, renewable energy, urban and water, the release said.
“Preparations are underway so that an ADB co-financed project would be among the first batch of projects to be financed by AIIB when it starts its lending operations by mid-this year,” it added.