PRESS RELEASE
AIIB, Not Obsessed with Free Market, Will Be More Open and Inclusive
March 11, 2016 (EIRNS)—In an article with China Daily Europe today, a researcher with the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Gao Bei, said the founding of the China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will benefit infrastructure construction investment in Asia, and promote regional communication and economic integration, pointing out that the bank, while borrowing mature experience of its peers has also incorporated new formulations. She said the AIIB "is more open and inclusive" and "what is unique to the AIIB is that it is not obsessed with free-market policies."
Explaining the inclusive characteristic of the AIIB, the author says the bank will allow loan recipients to resort to global procurement for their products instead of restricting them to purchase only from its members. "This practice will allow loan recipients to source the products that best suit them and maximize the benefits."
She also pointed out
"what is unique to the AIIB is that it is not obsessed with free-market policies. That is to say, the bank will not set privatization and the loosening of capital controls as conditions for countries to apply for loans."
Beside increasing infrastructure construction projects’ attraction to private investors, Gao Bei said the bank will effectively reduce the bank’s operational costs by maintaining a trim bureaucracy "unlike the bloated, overstaffed structures of existing development banks."
