The third annual meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank wrapped up recently with calls from one of its earliest champions, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to scale up its lending tenfold over the next two years.
“With a committed capital of $100 billion and huge need for infrastructure in member countries, I take this opportunity to call upon AIIB to expand financing from $4 billion to $40 billion by 2020,” he said at the opening ceremony of the two-day event.
The event was styled “Mobilizing Finance for Infrastructure: Innovation and Collaboration”.
By 2025 Modi would like the AIIB's lending to shoot up to $100 billion. But this would require simpler processing, faster approval, high-quality projects and robust project proposals, he said.
Since it began operations in January 2016, the AIIB has approved 26 projects in a dozen countries -- including Bangladesh (3), India (7) and Pakistan (2) -- with a total financing of over $4 billion.
“This is a good beginning,” he said, while reiterating India and the AIIB's commitment to making economic growth more inclusive and sustainable.
