Between last October’s inauguration of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing involving 21 important Asian countries (from India to Singapore to Saudi Arabia), and the recent entry by six European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the UK) plus New Zealand, the bank has introduced itself as a major player in future Asian development.
Unlike existing 'rivals', notably the $223.2bn World Bank and the $175.4bn Asian Development Bank, the AIIB promises to focus on only one aspect of Asian development: infrastructure. After initially seeding it with $50bn, China has already increased its capital base to $100bn, showing its willingness and an impressive capacity to expand. This is not surprising, given China’s world record currency reserves of nearly $4000bn.
