A leaked email exchange between the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and a civil society watchdog group over alleged human rights abuses at a tourism development project in Indonesia is shedding light on how the Beijing-based lender handles complaints — just as critics warn its revamped accountability mechanism may still fall short.
The correspondence, which took place last month and was shared exclusively with Devex, documents repeated requests by the watchdog group and Indigenous community representatives for in-person public consultations, disclosure of land and resettlement records, and an on-the-ground fact-finding mission to the Mandalika Urban and Tourism Infrastructure Project on Lombok Island in Indonesia.
The project, which is in its eighth year, is a plan to develop infrastructure for tourism in a coastal town called Ebunut. AIIB approved a $248.4 million loan to the Indonesia Tourism Development Corporation, or ITDC, to develop infrastructure for the Mandalika region in Lombok. This represents 78.5% of the total $316.5 million project cost.
About the author
Jesse Chase-Lubitz
Jesse Chase-Lubitz covers climate change and multilateral development banks for Devex. She previously worked at Nature Magazine, where she received a Pulitzer grant for an investigation into land reclamation. She has written for outlets such as Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and The Japan Times, among others. Jesse holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics.
