World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank President Jin Liqun today signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen cooperation and knowledge sharing between the institutions.
The memorandum of understanding provides an overall framework for cooperation between the World Bank Group and AIIB in common areas of interest, including development financing, staff exchanges, and analytical and sector work. It paves the way for the two institutions to further enhance coordination at the regional and country levels.
"The World Bank Group has worked closely with our partners at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank since its inception," Kim said. "We’re already financing projects together from Azerbaijan to Indonesia, and I’m delighted to further strengthen our partnership. Collaboration between development institutions is essential to make the best use of scarce resources, crowd in the private sector, and meet the rising aspirations of the people we serve."
The World Bank Group and the AIIB signed a Co-Financing Framework Agreement for investment projects a year ago. Since then, the AIIB and the World Bank have co-financed five projects, supporting power generation in Pakistan, a natural gas pipeline in Azerbaijan, and slum upgrading, dam safety, and regional infrastructure development in Indonesia. The two institutions are discussing more projects to be co-financed in 2017 and 2018.
In addition, the AIIB and the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, have co-invested in a power sector project in Myanmar and are discussing additional potential projects.
"Signing this memorandum of understanding fits into our vision of a new kind of internationalism," said Jin. "It deepens ours relationship with the World Bank Group and sets up the mechanisms through which we can more easily collaborate and share information. We place a high value on our partnerships because by working together, we greatly increase our potential for positive outcomes in Asia."
In 2015, the World Bank Group and the Multilateral Interim Secretariat for the Establishment of AIIB signed a memorandum of understanding for overall cooperation and knowledge exchange, which ended when AIIB was formally established.
