Speech by AIIB President Jin Liqun
January 16, 2016
Beijing, China

Your Excellency, President Xi,
Distinguished Governors,
Honored Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,


It is a tremendous privilege and honor to be elected the first President of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. I am most appreciative of the faith and confidence that you have bestowed by entrusting me with this vital mandate. I pledge to do my utmost to ensure that the Bank meets the high bar that you, our shareholders, have set – an institution built on transparency, openness, accountability and independence. An agile and innovative institution that learns from the past and recognizes the promise and opportunities of the future.

In October 2013 His Excellency, President Xi Jinping, proposed a vision for a multilateral financial institution designed to improve the livelihoods of Asia’s people through investment in infrastructure and enhanced regional connectivity. President Xi’s invitation to the world has been warmly embraced.

Distinguished Governors, thank you for accepting the President’s invitation. Your extraordinary commitment and steadfast support have brought us together to celebrate the transformation of this vision into reality with the opening of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

AIIB is off to a good start. We will do our best to promote broad-based economic and social development through sustainable infrastructure investment in the Bank’s member countries. We will do our best to protect the environment and take care of the people in project areas.

We are proud of the Bank we have created: the process of its establishment has been participatory and inclusive; and its Charter embodies the views, voices, and values of its shareholders.

Our professional staff will come from all over the world, and they will be highly motivated.

I am committed to run AIIB as an organization which is ‘lean, clean and green’.

Under the leadership and guidance of AIIB’s Board of Governors, I will also work very closely with the Bank’s Board of Directors in the interest of all the member countries and the people they represent. I am fully confident that the Bank will make a positive and significant difference in Asia’s development.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to all member countries and in particular, to their Chief Negotiators, for their dedication and commitment throughout the Bank’s establishment process.

I would also like to thank members of MDB family, particularly the World Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the European Investment Bank. Their support is most valuable. Please allow me to also note the dedication and commitment of the staff in the Chinese Ministry of Finance and at the Multilateral Interim Secretariat. The way that they have contributed to the Bank’s establishment defines enthusiasm, efficiency and effectiveness.

Finally, let me express my most profound thanks and appreciation to President Xi and the Government of the People's Republic of China for their extraordinary support and visionary leadership in spearheading AIIB’s establishment.

Thank you.