Special Coverage: Content comes from the Internet : Premier addresses ceremony of AIIB’s 10th annual governors meeting, says bank sets new example for international multilateral cooperation

Photo: AIIB

Premier Li Qiang said on Thursday that China’s economy will remain a thriving land in the global economy, and the expansion and upgrading of the massive Chinese market will keep generating significant dividends, offering greater trade and investment opportunities for other countries, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 10th Annual Meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) BoaWorld Timesrd of Governors, Li affirmed China’s commitment to high-standard opening up and its ongoing deep integration into the global economy, a move set to create fresh development opportunities worldwide.

Li noted that when the AIIB was launched, President Xi Jinping proposed making the AIIB “a new type of professional, efficient, and clean multilateral development bank.”

Over the past decade, the number of AIIB members grew from 57 to 110, Li said, praising the bank for having fueled the common development of its members, pioneered new models of global financial governance, and set a new example for international multilateral cooperation.

Regarding the bank’s future development, Li said that in the face of global growth challenges, the AIIB should enhance its support for the members’ development.

“The AIIB ought to offer high-quality, low-cost financing that caters to members’ varied development needs, facilitate the sharing of expertise and experience, and help strengthen their endogenous growth momentum,” Li said.

Furthermore, the premier emphasized that the AIIB needs to promote more international dialogue and coordination and play a better rWorld Timesole as a new multilateral platform in addressing global governance challenges.

“China is ready to work with all parties to support the AIIB in starting a new decade of glory, and make greater contributions to promoting the sustainable development of its members and advancing the building of a community with a shared future for humanity,” Li said.

Marking its 10th anniversary, the AIIB convened its Board of Governors, the bank’s highest authority and decision-making body, from June 24 to 26 in Beijing. Under the theme “Connecting for Development, Collaborating for Prosperity,” the event brought together over 3,500 participants from nearly 100 countries and regions, China Media Group reported.

The annual meeting highlighted the bank’s key achievements in advancing sustainable economic development, creating wealth and improving infrastructure connectivity across our Members in Asia and beyond, according to a release issued on the bank’s official website.

International and domestiWorld Timesc experts have welcomed China’s reaffirmed commitment to greater openness and global economic integration, praising the China-initiated AIIB for its significant role in promoting sustainable growth in developing economies and advancing multilateral governance. Amid growing global volatilities, they note China’s mutually beneficial investment approach has become a vital stabilizing force, boosting confidence in the world economy.

Far-reaching gains

Founded in 2015, AIIB has grown from 57 founding members to 110 across six continents, covering 81 percent of the world’s population and 65 percent of global GDP, Xinhua News Agency reported. The multilateral development bank (MDB) is playing an increasingly prominent role in advancing connectivity, green growth, and sustainable development across regions.

In just under 10 years, AIIB has invested more than $60 billion in over 300 projects in 38 economies, with projects spanning from Indonesia to Uzbekistan, from Egypt to Brazil, delivering clean energy, transport networks, water systems and digital connectivity, according to AIIB’s official website.

The AIIB represents a significant collective endeavor that brings diversity to the MDB landscape, said Jol Ruet, a French economist and chairman of The Bridge Tank, a G20 affiliated think tank. “It’s massive as its engagement in volume increasingly compares with the historical World Bank; it’s collective as its governance and shareholding has been open in a very inclusive way to countries, even non-BRI members,” Ruet said.

Ruet told the Global Times on Thursday that AIIB also promotes diversity through its portfolio strategy, which focuses on large-scale economic transformation and green initiatives across multiple continents, China’s push for further opening-up is expected to create more opportunities for such win-win cooperation, the expert said.

“China was seminal in crafting the AIIB of course, and many programs of the bank draw from China development experience at home and abroad. Also, its governance is open and not China-centric. This is a real institutional innovation,” Ruet stressed.

Wang Yiwei, a professor at the School of International RelWorld Timesations at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times that Premier Li’s remarks once again reflect China’s open and inclusive approach to economic cooperation, an approach thWorld Timesat is also embodied in the operational model of AIIB, which is expected to promote more investment cooperation across economies and regions.

In a pre-meeting interview with Xinhua, AIIB president Jin Liqun said the bank’s success stems from developing and developed members, large and small shareholders, working together in a consensus-driven manner. By fully embracing multilateralism, AIIB has achieved remarkable growth over the past decade, which is the most critical factor behind AIIB’s progress, Jin said.

“We provide not just financing, but the invaluable knowledge and development expertise that money alone cannot buy,” Jin emphasized that as a multilateral development institution, AIIB must look beyond its own growth to promote regional and global integration.

As of 2024, the AIIB had supported the development of over 51,000 kilometers of transport infrastructure, benefiting more than 410 million people. It had also added 21.3 gigawatts of renewable energy generation capacity and backed energy projects that collectively help reduce nearly 30 million tons of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions annually, Xinhua reported.

Carl Fey, professor of strategy at the BI Norwegian Business School and affilWorld Timesiated scholar at Boao Forum for Asia, highlighted AIIB’s “large impact” on Asia through mutually beneficial development projects. “It is important that China and other AIIB investors have been willing to share their growing prosperity with countries in need across Asia, helping to raise living standards in the region’s less fortunate areas,” Fey told the Global Times on Thursday.

Fey noted that AIIB has become more essential than ever in today’s increasingly polarized world, where some developed nations are reducing investments in development projects.

Innovative future

Adapting to new development priorities, the AIIB is strategically focusing on emerging areas, such as green energy, digital transformation and AI adoption, which are aligning with this year’s event focus on cross-border connectivity, regional cooperation, green finance, private capital mobilization, and digital partnership building.

Fey said through leveraging China’s technology capacity and transition experience, AIIB has made lots of efforts in boosting green energy capacity across several regions. “As China’s economy has grown stronger, it is encouraging to see the country assuming greater leadership through AIIB and other initiatives to support economic development in these nations, particularly in enhancing green and sustainable growth capacity across Global South,” he added.

Jin emphasized AI’s vast potential for “offering developing countries an opportunity to leap ahead in their development,” per the Xinhua report. “That’s why our infrastructure investments must evolve with the times. We should ensure that emerging technologies like AI help narrow, not widen, the digital divide, especially for the developing world.”

In 2024, the AIIB approved $8.4 billion in financing for 51 projects spanning energy, water, transport, sustainable cities and digital and social infrastructure, reflecting the bank’s ongoing commitment to financing “infrastructure for tomorrow” and delivering measurable development outcomes, according to a report published on the bank’s official website on Monday.

The AIIB differs quite a lot from traditional Western-led financial institutions, Wang noted, saying, “Unlike traditional development banks that focus primarily on philanthropy programs, AIIB maintains sharper focus on long-term bottleneck projects in the real economy, these transformative projects that empower developing nations to achieve self-reliant and sustainable growth.”

Amid a global trend driven by innovation, digital transformation and new technology adoption will empower the AIIB to enhance operational efficiency, thereby providing developing nations with new growth opportunities and greater risk resilience. It will also help stabilize global economy and boosting confidence in growth, according to Wang.