Jin Liqun, President-designate of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, delivers a speech at 2015 annual conference of European Chamber on Dec.1, 2015. (People's Dailly Online/Yuan Can)
Although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to include the Chinese yuan in its Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket, US dollar will still be the currency used by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for the sake of convenience for its members, said Jin Liqun, President-designate of the AIIB at 2015 annual conference of European Chamber on Tuesday.
Jin congratulates the Executive Board of the IMF for their "smart" decision to accept the yuan into their basket. According to Jin, the yuan is a strong currency. China's external relations and its cross-border investment all over the world depend much on the power of the yuan.
Including the yuan in SDR basket is the triumph of the People's Bank of China and it will increase the yuan’s volatility in the market as China opens up more, said Jorg Wuttke, President of European Chamber in an interview after the conference.
Although the main currency used in the bank is US dollar, investors can raise capital in both dollar and the yuan in China's market. Furthermore, the bank can issue bonds in its offshore center using the yuan, according to Jin.
After the yuan is included into the basket, China's government should take responsibility to ensure the currency is stable and its economy is open, said Jin.
The AIIB is not specifically created for countries along the "Belt and Road" but for all economies of its members, Jin added.
Jin mentioned that the bank is to be operated in a lean, clean and green way.
The bank plans to move quickly after its official launch by the end of 2015 and to unveil its first “batch” of projects in the second quarter of 2016, said Jin at the annual conference.
The first loans of the bank will include projects co-financed with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in order to diversify risks, Jin mentioned.
When asked the necessity to have the bank, Jin said that different multilateral institutions are set up to meet demands of different historic periods.
The World Bank (WB) was established at the end of the World War II to reduce poverty. Asian Development Bank (ADB) was set up to promote social and economic development in Asia and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) was initially established to help economy of the Eastern bloc after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Given the fact that global economy slows down, the AIIB is set to support infrastructure of its members because infrastructure is a main driver for economic growth, said Jin.
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