(Devex) The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank seems on track to begin full operations early next year.
This week, 50 of the bank’s founding members signed the articles of agreement formally establishing the world’s newest multilateral financial institution. Held in Beijing, where the bank’s headquarters will also be established, the ceremony wrapped up nearly two years of contentious negotiations, brainstorming and justifications over the need for a new multilateral bank to help address the region’s growing infrastructure demands. Asia-Pacific is said to need almost $800 billion in infrastructure investments annually over the next decade — an amount that even the combined resources of the world’s multilateral institutions cannot yet fill. […]
“This signifies the start of a new chapter in the evolution of international development — a multilateral institution, global in membership, whose agenda is not predominantly determined by the U.S. and its Western allies,” Alexander Cooley, director of Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, told Devex.
He also said that China’s ascent as a global leader “should not be surprising” given the rising profile of emerging donors in the international development scene. Last year, the economic group comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa established the New Development Bank.
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