Distinguished Chair, fellow speakers, ladies and gentlemen,

It is a pleasure to join you at the Asian Financial Forum. I am especially glad to be here today, as this is my first public engagement since assuming my role as President of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank earlier this month.

The theme of this session – fostering cooperation for shared success – goes directly to the challenges we face. Among them, a basic challenge is the tension between supply and demand of long-term development financing.

We are living through difficult times: geopolitical tensions, debt burdens, fragmentation of global value-chains, declining concessional resources – all these are eroding confidence in development financing.

At the same time, the need to invest in infrastructure and other productive sectors is only intensifying.

Across Asia and beyond, countries need reliable energy, resilient infrastructure, digital connectivity and climate adaptation – even as borrowing costs rise and public budgets come under pressure.

This creates a fundamental tension: demand for long-term investment is growing, just as cooperation becomes harder and capital more cautious.

In this environment, multilateral cooperation is not an abstract ideal. It is an economic imperative.

Cooperation reduces uncertainty. It aligns standards. It lowers risk premiums. And it helps build confidence – and keeps long-term investment moving, even in a turbulent global environment.

From my perspective, fostering cooperation in development financing requires focus on three practical priorities.

First, boosting confidence in long-term investment despite fragmentation.

This means using multilateral platforms to build consensus for cooperation, enhance credibility, align standards, mitigate risk and maintain predictability when markets are cautious.

Second, expanding space for future investment under fiscal pressure.

Public resources alone will not be sufficient. Mobilizing private capital is essential. But more important is making public resources and private capital reinforce each other – to create a bigger cake.

AIIB can support this virtuous cycle by financing infrastructure that enables private sector growth, expands the tax base and, over time, increases fiscal space for further development.

Third, catalyzing innovation and transformation to advance the development agenda.

Multilateral development banks are not only sources of financing. We are catalysts for change. Financing should serve as a vehicle to bring about technological, institutional, and managerial innovation and transformation. For instance, climate mitigation requires energy transformation; AI technology needs to be applied in developing countries etc.

At AIIB, these approaches have been central from the start. We were created to finance infrastructure for tomorrow, with sustainability at its core, and to do so through a multilateral model, and innovative approach.

In practice, this means projects that take advantage of multilateral cooperation and bring about innovation and transformation:

• In Türkiye, AIIB partnered with other international institutions to support renewable energy by anchoring a sustainable bond issuance – helping attract long-term private capital into climate-friendly infrastructure.
• In Indonesia, a satellite connectivity project will extend digital access to millions of people in remote communities – made viable through long-term public finance working alongside private technology and expertise.
• In Kazakhstan, AIIB is working with international and private partners to scale up wind power, expanding clean energy supply and strengthening energy security.

Different contexts. Different sectors. The same logic: in a more uncertain world, cooperation is what keeps investment moving.

Looking ahead, the focus of AIIB is clear: to channel long-term capital into sustainable infrastructure and other productive investment, by working closely with partners – sister MDBs, governments, private sectors and financial centers like Hong Kong, China.

Ladies and gentlemen, a better world is not only possible – it can be built. But it will only be built through action, cooperation and financing that delivers real results. AIIB will be among those who turn commitment into action.

Thank you.