Asian Development Bank says Chinese lender AIIB not a rival

The Asian Development Bank wants to collaborate with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to meet the region’s growing investment needs and does not see the emerging China-led lender as a rival, the ADB’s president said on Thursday.

Addressing media on day one of the ADB’s annual meeting in Manila, Takehiko Nakao said that although China was an important international lender and borrower, its rise and that of the AIIB would not be motivating factors behind any changes in the ADB’s future strategy.

Nakao said the two institutions were different in many ways, which meant they could collaborate more effectively.

“AIIB, it’s not the kind of threat to us,” he said. “We can cooperate with AIIB because we need larger investment in Asia and we can collaborate.”

He said the AIIB had observed very high standards in terms of its programmes and the AIIB and the ADB this year hoped to approve several projects which they would co-finance. He did not elaborate.

The two have so far jointly provided combined loans of more than US$700 million for four infrastructure projects, three of them in South Asia.