Jim Yong Kim Ready to Collaborate with China-led Development Bank

The president of the World Bank expressed strong support for the new Chinese-led regional development bank. Jim Yong Kim welcomed it as a major new player in the fight against poverty and pledged to quickly find some innovative ways by which the two international financial institutions could collaborate.

“If the world’s multilateral banks, including the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank, can form alliances, work together, and support development that addresses these challenges, we all benefit – especially the poor and most vulnerable,” said Kim. He also said at the same event, “The fundamental issue for us is — your enemy cannot be other institutions. Your enemy has to be poverty.”

In advance of the World Bank/IMF spring meetings he dismissed the notion that the birth of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) would be a challenge to the World Bank dominated by the U.S. Kim added that he will meet with Chinese officials at the meetings of the pillars of the global financial system in Washington next week to discuss potential cooperation.

The AIIB has invited around 50 countries into applying to be founding members, which Includes some key U.S. allies such as Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and South Korea. Chinese President Xi Jinping, who initiated the AIIB, welcomes all countries in the region, as well as partners around the world, to join the AIIB. The U.S. may soon be alone among major economies, as more countries sign on to help capitalize the AIIB. The bank is expected to lend about US$100 billion when it opens, especially to developing countries in the Southeast, Central and Southern Asian regions. According to Xinhua News Agency, the bank plans to create more capital mobilization channels.

One Japanese press company reported that by the end of June the Abe administration will be considering a membership. And it is now discussing a US$1.5 billion contribution if the new bank meets certain criteria.

Previously Madeleine Albright, the former U.S. Secretary of State, said that it is Washington’s miscalculation in not seeking membership in the AIIB. Despite U.S. reluctance to endorse the nascent bank, Kim approached the case with a fundamental point that all hands are needed on deck to end poverty and build the global economy in peace. Xi said, “We will ... advance complementary and coordinated development between the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and such multilateral financial institutions as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.”