The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is a newcomer with big ambitions. The Chinese-led institution cannot only already lend up to $250bn for infrastructure and other projects. It also wants to expand into a global body to rival long-established multilateral lenders.
At the same time, it is trying to cultivate a distinctive modus operandi. Unlike the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), it has no overarching objective to reduce poverty. China is also set to surrender its de facto veto power over the bank’s significant decisions but hopes to burnish its reputation with a new philosophy on development finance.
“I’m a Chinese national and I am very much patriotic, but I’m not of a very narrow nationalist mind,” says Jin Liqun, the AIIB’s president. “China needs to do something which can help it be recognised as a responsible member of the international economic community and maybe in the future be recognised as a responsible leader.