It is nearing a year and a half since the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank opened its doors for operations on Jan. 16, 2016. Since its foundation, the Chinese-led bank has been shrouded in controversy. There were concerns that the bank was a political power play for regional control. There were concerns that it did not have appropriate governance structures. And the AIIB was thought to be competition to the Asian Development Bank whose relevance has been questioned in recent years.
But since operations began, the fears have subsided. There have been no large political power plays from the bank, and the ADB is still operational. Once-skeptical critics of the bank, such as the United States and Japan, have grown quieter.
Analyzing tenders and grants that have been fully or partly funding by the AIIB, Devex has investigated the bank’s priorities to understand what makes them stand apart from other players in development finance. Based on the data from the first 18 months, it appears the development strategy for the AIIB has been to progress slowly and learn from the best.