By
Clifford Hwang
The reception to the
proposal for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has been highly divergent. The United States and Japan are currently “non-committal” in regards to
membership. Europe was wary at first; Germany will be one of
the AIIB’s largest shareholders. China viewed it as a “diplomatic triumph.”
Ultimately, the AIIB’s success will determine how it should have been viewed.
Chinese President Xi
Jinping first proposed the launch of a China-led investment in 2013, and after
two years of development, the AIIB is now expected to launch at the end of the
year. The AIIB, in addition to institutions like the World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank, is expected to provide funding for various infrastructure
projects in Asia with its capital of $100 billion. With the growing need of
infrastructure investment coupled with previous inadequate funding levels, the
AIIB is expected to partially fill the investment gap in Asia, which is
estimated to be around $800 billion a year.
