Jake's View | Creation of AIIB all about China's hubris

And the prize of the top job at the new AIIB is to go to … may I have the envelope, please … China!

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Jin Liqun is expected to be the top candidate to become the AIIB's president. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 7:30am, 5 Apr 2015Updated: 4:46pm, 16 Nov 2015

Jin Liqun, who has been heading a panel to initiate the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is expected to be the top candidate to become the lender's president when the bank is formally launched later this year.

And the prize of the top job at the new AIIB is to go to … may I have the envelope, please … China!

Well, well, what a surprise. Please join me, ladies and gentlemen, in congratulating our winner.

And pardon me for a touch of cynicism. This new bank is not about infrastructure investment. It is about the hubris of global national standing.

Infrastructure investment in Asia does not require another development bank, in fact may be misdirected by such a bank into wasteful projects.

Jake Van Der Kamp

Jake van der Kamp is a native of the Netherlands, a Canadian citizen, and a longtime Hong Kong resident. He started as a South China Morning Post business reporter in 1978, soon made a career change to investment analyst and returned to the newspaper in 1998 as a financial columnist.

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Jake's View | Creation of AIIB all about China's hubris

And the prize of the top job at the new AIIB is to go to … may I have the envelope, please … China!

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