AIIB to set up high-standard, feasible safeguard policies

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will fully respect and draw upon the good practices of existing multilateral development banks (MDBs) and set up high-standard and feasible safeguard policies, Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said on Friday.

Existing MDBs, such as World Bank and ADB, have accumulated many good experiences and practices during the past decades, Lou said in a media interview, noting that they have set up many high-quality standards and policies with regard to governance structure, environmental evaluation, procurement, debt sustainability and management of projects including the infrastructure projects.

AIIB will fully respect and draw upon the good practices of existing MDBs and set up high-standard and feasible safeguard policies, Lou said, stressing that it is noteworthy that existing MDBs are now reviewing their safeguard policies and improving some of the bureaucratic, unrealistic and irrelevant policies.

AIIB will avoid repeating these mistakes to reduce operation cost and increase efficiency, he said.

Twenty-first Asian countries that are willing to join AIIB as founding members on Friday signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Establishing AIIB (MOU).