COPENHAGEN - Jin Liqun, the newly elected first president of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), said China as the biggest shareholder is obliged to provide full support for the institution and set to win the trust and confidence of other shareholders.
Addressing a lecture at the Copenhagen Business School on Wednesday afternoon, Jin said AIIB is a bank owned collectively by 57 member countries and it is "not a tool of the Chinese government".
"AIIB sets the governance structure that is approved by all the founding members. As long as we follow the governance structure, as long as we operate this bank as a truly international financial institution, it certainly could not be the tool of the Chinese government," Jin said.
China, being the biggest shareholder, is obliged to provide all kinds of support for smooth operation of the institution, he said.
"It's not your privilege, it's not your right, it's your duty and it's your responsibility," Jin said.
"As long as China follows this line and complies with all the rules, I think China will have no difficulty in winning the trust and confidence of all the other shareholders, members of the international community and even several countries that are not members of the institution," Jin said.
The AIIB was proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 and officially established late last year. Headquartered in Beijing, it has an authorized capital of $100 billion.
Jin explained to the audience that AIIB covers all the developing member countries with regards to financing. He noted that AIIB can support OBOR (One Belt, One Road) projects, but these projects should measure up to the standards of the bank, "and we should also balance the financing across the countries, regions and sectors."
Jin said as a responsible member of the international community, China should do something which has never been done before.
"China wants to initiate a bank that will follow the international best practice. This is the reason behind the creation of such a bank," he said.
Jin said the vision of AIIB is to create an institution that is efficient, free from corruption and environmentally responsible. "As we call it, the bank should be lean, clean and green."
He explained that essentially AIIB is a multilateral development bank (MDB).
"AIIB is not the clone or copy of any existing institutions. It should be a new one. But still it is not something very different from MDBs. We should keep its identity as MDB, but we should be different. So AIIB is going to do different things, and should be doing things differently," Jin said.
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