China based The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s Board of Directors today approved its first 4 loans totaling $509 million to finance 4 projects: Power, Transport and Urban Investments span South, Southeast and Central Asia Investment Bank. Among them Bangladesh is one of the first countries to have secured a loan from the Asian Infrastructure.
Bangladesh will get $165 million dollar from AIIB for a power distribution system upgrade and expansion project.
AIIB’s President Jin Liqun noted, “I am delighted to announce that AIIB’s Board of Directors has today – just six months after the Bank’s inauguration — approved the first group of loans. These projects, which span the energy, urban development and transport sectors, will help to bridge the region’s critical infrastructure financing gap and strengthen regional connectivity.
We are very pleased that three of these projects are joint co-financing operations with our development partners, ADB, EBRD and the World Bank. This has been an outstanding and tangible demonstration of multilateral cooperation that has expanded the pool of financing available to our joint member countries. We are working on a number of additional projects and look forward to bringing them to our Board for its approval later this year.”
The Bank, which supports infrastructure development and regional connectivity in Asia, is targeting lending of approximately $1.2 billion in 2016.
Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli said on Saturday that the China-lead Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank should forge close partnerships with the World Bank, Asia Development Bank and others.
It is crucial for the AIIB to comply with multilateral agency procedures and rules, Zhang added.
