Coronavirus: Asian multilateral bank lends US$355 million to Chinese public health projects
- Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank lends Chinese cities of Beijing and Chongqing funds to upgrade local public health facilities
- AIIB lending for health care projects a departure from previous concentration on traditional infrastructure spending
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has extended US$355 million in emergency financing to the Chinese cities of Beijing and Chongqing to upgrade their public health response capacities to help fight the current Covid-19 pandemic as well as future health crises.
The AIIB said its funding would cover money spent by the two cities when the crisis was most acute in China.
The funds will help improve the capacity of the centres for disease control and prevention in both cities, buy emergency supplies and equipment, as well as upgrading hospital facilities to treat epidemics.
“[The loans are] both for emergency supplies and equipment but also for permanent infrastructure so that the developments will last beyond the current crisis period,” said Joachim von Amsberg, vice-president for policy and strategy at the AIIB.
“It was very important to act as quickly as possible to help finance China in this situation given that they were first hit by this crisis.”
The Beijing-based bank’s support for China’s health care sector has broadened its investment scope beyond the infrastructure projects it has financed since it was established four years ago.