AIIB good for region, good for the world

The World Bank and Asian Development Bank have always lacked any apparent willingness to embrace private capital input and private-sect or discipline generally.

It is also abundantly clear that many of the 21 AIIB participants, including India and China itself, offer potentially spectacular growth opportunities.

Growth models across these 21 members have not, as yet, facilitated any significant spread of infrastructure investment and development beyond a few major cities. It is precisely for this reason that the AIIB concept was raised a few years ago.

Thanks to the Chinese leadership, we should see a wave of AIIB-led infrastructure investment activity across the Asian region.

Infrastructure is the sine quan on of accelerated, sustainable economic development, and history tells us that alocalized approach always works best. But what is most exciting potentially is the follow-on-capital investment, particularly from private capital, that the AIIB has pledged to attract and inject.

The AIIB has maintained that infrastructure investment is the initial target. It is a building block of sustainable development, and fuelling any infrastructure-led growth model requires AIIB input.

Effective collaboration is also needed with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. Both organizations still have a major role to play in Asia, which has been acknowledged by the AIIB.

US-led fears of usurpation of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank lack foundation and run counter to public AIIB statements.

Fears that this initiative will lead to a concentration on the Chinese mainland are also misplaced. The AIIB will fuel much-needed infrastructure building in less developed parts of China as well as the wider Asian region. It is in China's economic interests for this to occur, and attractive export markets for Chinese companies will no doubt result.

A healthy Asian economy can only lead to a healthier world economy. The key to sustainable economic growth across Asia has to start with focused infrastructure-led investment. The AIIB should be welcomed not only in Asia but across the world and within the World Bank.

The author is a visiting professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing and a senior lecturer on marketing at Southampton So lent University's School of Business. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will guide capital	ADB to work together with China-proposed AIIB