AIIB Vice President Dr. D. J. Pandian hails PM Modi’s leadership for India’s infrastructure push

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) Vice President (Investment Operations) and Chief Investment Officer Dr. D. J. Pandian has hailed the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for India’s infrastructure push

Dr. Pandian said India’s infrastructure requirement is ‘unimaginable’ and the Government of India under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership has come out with a big pipeline of infrastructure projects amounting to more than 2 trillion USD. He said, AIIB is committed to strengthen the infrastructure in India. We will work with GOI very closely to spread infrastructure development across the country, he added.

He was talking to Prasar Bharati, Beijing on approval of USD150 million loan for Chennai metropolitan area (CMA) project. He said that India is the largest beneficiary of Beijing based AIIB and the bank has so far approved 29 projects for India worth 6.8 billion USD. The energy and transport sectors have received the highest amount of AIIB’s financing. Dr. Pandian said another 27 projects worth 5 billion USD are in pipeline for India including Haryana Orbital Railway project which will be a circular railway to national capital Delhi, multi corridor transport project in Mumbai and digital education project in Gujarat.

He further informed that AIIB has given 1.75 billion USD support to India in three projects to assist in fight against COVID-19. Fourth project is co-financed with Asian development Bank for procurement of COVID-19 vaccines in which the AIIB will support with 500 million USD. It’s expected to get approved in December.

Talking about the challenges in a post-pandemic world, he said, many countries are struggling hard to do infrastructure projects. However, the bank has a very healthy pipeline of the projects which may get approval next year, he added. He also talked about the impact of COVID related travel restrictions on bank’s work and said we will be able to do our routine work in a year or two. Regarding opening of an AIIB regional office in India, he said if business grows, we need to think about opening offices in countries where more projects are going on, but it will take some time. It will be in the interest of quality of projects and trickle down of its benefits to the people, he said. The Government of India has been continuously requesting for it, he added.

He said, AIIB works in close cooperation with other existing multilateral development banks or legacy banks like World bank, Asian development Bank etc. to support the infrastructure requirements in Asian countries as there is a huge infrastructure gap in Asian region vis-à-vis western countries. AIIB was created to fill up this gap, he said. Regarding the current rough phase of bilateral relations between India and China, he said bilateral relations do not affect bank’s decision making as it’s a multilateral bank with members across all over the world. Bank takes apolitical, independent, and impartial decisions for investment based on its policies and strategies, he said, adding that any bilateral event does not affect bank’s investment operations. He said the bank has a clear-cut policy related to financing projects in the disputed areas.

Consent from all sides is required to fund such projects, he added. In a candid talk he reflected upon the journey of AIIB in last six years which started working in Beijing with very limited people. He recalled it was tough to cater to the needs of 57 founding member countries with a handful of people during initial days. He expressed satisfaction at the growth of a new bank like AIIB in international arena as it has approved 147 projects so far amounting to USD 28.9 billion and has since grown to 104 approved members worldwide. By 2025, the bank’s climate finance will be 50 per cent and from next year all projects to be approved will be Paris climate agreement aligned, he said. 
<<ANSHUMAN MISHRA/BEIJING/20-11-2021>>