AIIB - INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

News: FM urges AIIB to scale up investment in renewal energy, smart technologies

What's in the news?

       Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asked the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to scale up investment in renewal energy and smart technologies and also urged the multilateral agency to set up a regional office in India.

Key takeaways:

       AIIB began its operations in Beijing in January 2016 and has since grown to 105 approved members worldwide.

       The bank is a multilateral development lender whose mission is financing the ‘Infrastructure for Tomorrow’ with sustainability at its core.

       India is a founding member of AIIB with the second-highest voting share.

       India holds 7.74% equity in the multilateral bank, next only to China (29.9%). 

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank:

       Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank with a mission to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia.

       Headquarters: Beijing, China.

Key objectives:

       To promote sustainable economic development, create wealth and augment infrastructure connectivity in Asia by investing in infrastructure & other productive sectors.

       Working towards fostering regional partnership & cooperation to address developmental challenges by working in tandem with other bilateral and multilateral development institutions.

       Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) promotes investment in private & public capital for development purposes.

       AIIB uses the resources at its disposal for funding development in the region, including projects that will contribute to the balanced economic growth of the region.

       AIIB also works for promoting private investment in enterprises, activities, and projects contributing to economic development in the region wherever private capital is not available.

Members:

       Currently, there are 104 member countries in AIIB.

       India is one of the founding member of AIIB.

       The U.S. and Japan are not among their members.

Membership Criteria:

       Membership to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is open to all members of the Asian Development Bank or the World Bank.

       The bank also allows non-sovereign entities to apply for membership provided their home countries are members.

Voting rights:

       China is the largest shareholder with 26.61 % voting shares in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank followed by India (7.6%), Russia (6.01%) and Germany (4.2 %).

       The regional members hold 75% of the total voting power in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).