AIIB Targets To Lend Upto $18 bn Annually In 3-4 Yrs

New Delhi: Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has set a target to lend upto $18 billion annually in 3-4 years due to growing demand for infrastructure. Currently, annual funding done by Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is around $10 billion.

Speaking about the pipeline for sovereign funding, AIIB vice president (investment solutions) Ajay Bhushan Pandey on Tuesday said that the multilateral development bank is looking to scale up average annual lending to $17-18 billion in the next 3-4 years in view of growing demand for infrastructure development.

"Our message to the ministries and state governments is: this is your bank and you must make optimum use of the resources available. The Beijing-based lender has so far provided loans worth $12 billion to India. Out of that, AIIB has provided $1.8 billion to the private sector so far,” he said at an event organised by Ficci here.“We are also open to funding digital infrastructure like data centres, digital communication or innovative projects like AI and semiconductor. The country would need investment of about $1.5 trillion in infrastructure development as per an estimate. Given AIIB’s thrust on the private sector, the bank aims to gradually raise financing to the private sector to 50 per cent of total finance by 2030,” he added.

Pandey also said that AIIB is having a series of meetings with various line ministries to create a pipeline of sovereign projects. “On Monday, we had a detailed meeting with the secretary, department of economic affairs, and secretary, department of water resources, river development and Ganga Rejuvenation on the water sector, including revival of many dams, the Namami Gange project and the inter-linking of rivers,” he said.

Besides, he said that the officials are going to have discussions with the ministries of health and power and then with the chief minister of Maharashtra and state officials to discuss building a pipeline of infrastructure projects both in the public and private sector. “As far as the private sector is concerned, renewable energy, green energy, green mobility and affordable housing are the focus areas for funding,” he said.