A framework agreement to enable joint financing by the World Bank and by the new development bank launched by China, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), was signed today during the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings in Washington DC.
“The AIIB is very grateful for the generous and timely support offered by the World Bank Group throughout our establishment process and we look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with ongoing cooperation in project co-financing and other areas,” said Jin Liqun, President of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
The two institutions are in discussions to co-finance around 10 projects in central Asia, South Asia and East Asia. Under the agreement, the World Bank will prepare and supervise the co-financed projects in accordance with its policies and procedures in areas like procurement, environment and social safeguards.
“I am delighted that today we are raising our partnership to a new level,” said Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group. “As the world’s multilateral development banks collaborate ever more closely, leveraging each other’s financing and expertise, the people who will benefit the most will be the world’s poor.”
In 2016, the AIIB expects to approve around US$1.2 billion in financing with joint projects with the World Bank likely to account for a sizable share.