WASHINGTON — Despite Washington’s concerns that the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank may undercut existing institutions, it may be a co-investment opportunity and is a step towards sustained growth in emerging Asia, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said Friday.
Twenty-one nations signed the China-driven initiative on Friday to build the bank aimed at boosting infrastructure investment and projects of all kinds across Asia. Australia, Indonesia and South Korea were notably absent.
Kim said that the new bank would be a “welcome addition to the current situation” because of the lack of financing infrastructure in Asia,
“I cannot speak about the politics of it,” he said. “But my sense is that we can work with them very well. It is without question that there are many more infrastructure projects worthy of investing in. The critical thing is that efforts are well-coordinated.”
A lack of transport infrastructure has been an obstacle to economic growth and foreign investments in Asia, which Kim estimated would require about $1.5 trillion to build.
“Especially in Asia, there is nowhere near enough money,” he said.
Kim said the Chinese government pitched the idea to the World Bank a year ago.
“The Chinese government began talking with us very early on. China wants to utilize our technical expertise,” which he said was the World Bank’s ability to “do everything from implementation support to bringing multiple different groups together.”
Kim produced an unequivocal response to the question: Does the World Bank feel threatened?
“No,” he said. “I can even see co-investing.”
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