Myanmar's Cooperation with AIIB, ASEAN will Boost its Economy 

AIIB President Sees Myanmar's membership in the AIIB as the country's ticket to a developed economy. The AIIB is promoting China's One Belt One Road Initiative in Myanmar and AIIB President, Jin Liquin, believes this will benefit not only Myanmar, but also the neighboring countries. Myanmar's Mingyan project is a part of a 300 million USD budget that the AIIB approved in September. 


Development Banks in Asia need to Cooperate and Coordinate

Last Friday, a seminar under the title of “Deepening Asian Economic and Financial Cooperation, Promoting Regional Integrated Development” was hosted by China's Ministry of Finance. Very salient questions concerning the future of Asia's future development were posed, however, the most important discussions were brought up concerning the cooperation and coordination of banks in order to address Asia's infrastructure gap. The Asian region is very vibrant with a lot of potential, however, the infrastructure is several behind. Therefore, more coordination between multilateral development banks and lending institutions in the private sector was encouraged in order to effectively address narrowing this infrastructure gap. The AIIB was brought up ini this seminar and it was announced that the new bank intends on financing additional projects by the end of 2016.


Global Governance

Over 300 officials, scholars, and business leaders met at Wenzhou City for the 2016 Charhar Forum on Public Diplomacy and Wenzhou Public Diplomacy Forum. This forum is in part organized by the Charhar Institute, a think tank on China's international relations and foreign policy. The forum focused on brainstorming ideas on how China's wisdom can help contribute to global governance. Former vice foreign minister He Yafei believes that China should provide new initiatives similar to the AIIB and the BRICS to "advocate democracy in international relations and explore new models for common development and win-win situations,"

      
Politics of Investment

China's recent venture into the Philippines represents a success in connecting transport lines from China and supporting Chinese infrastructure firms. The Silk Road / One Belt One Road  shows that China is remaking itself the center of world trade. The central theme of China's economic strategy is loans for infrastructure development and that Chinese firms be contracted for projects. The ADB believes that the AIIB can help meet the shortfall in loans available internationally, $8 trillion in investment between 2012 and 2020.  


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Global economic governance needs the nutrition of Chinese traditional culture: an example of establishing AIIB
 
The Chinese economy has become very energetic after the implementation of the Reform and Opening-up Policy 30 years ago, and Chinese traditional culture has contributed a lot to its prosperity. Furthermore, global economic governance will benefit greatly from its intangible wisdom in several of the following ways:
 
1) Chinese culture condemns pursuing self-profit by hurting others’ interests:
 
During the Asian Financial Crisis, the whole of East Asia was under the risk of currency devaluation. When faced with the pressure of decreasing imports and raising the unemployment rate, China still claimed a stable exchange rate of the Chinese currency (RMB), and delivered help to other countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, etc. China will continue contributing to global economic order and stabilization.
 
2) Chinese culture advocates building good neighborliness:
 
The financial crisis of 2008 produced a lot of negative influence on the global economy: trade protectionism and self-benefit quantitative easing policy constantly affect the economy. The construction of the AIIB, however, accelerates the interaction of policy, establishment, trade, capital, and culture between countries and economic entities. China developed the AIIB with the responsibility to share resources, enhance corporation, and ensure global governance.
 
3) Chinese culture encourages harmony in diversity:
 
Some critics state that China is planning to start another international financial system and disturb current global relationships. In fact, the establishment of the AIIB is not intended to start everything all over again, but refine the global economic structure and amend some unreasonable rules. The AIIB is special in many distinct ways: evaluation of loans will not be subject to any political conditions; national conditions and other different conditions such as political system, culture and religion, will be treated equally with respect and protection. The AIIB allows a diversity of backgrounds to work together.
 
                                                                                 [END TRANSLATION]
 
 
 
 
My Thoughts and Reflections…
 
By Siyu Luo                                                                                                            
October 28, 2016
 
China is a country with an ancient civilization that has a long history of cultures, which indeed exerts influence on Chinese behavior style. Education is one of the most important elements shaping a person’s thoughts and values, and China continuously pays attention to education, especially strengthen traditional sculpturing from an early age of every child.
 
On the other hand, Chinese traditional culture inspires the country and has done so for many centuries. China has experienced ups and downs throughout its long history, and Chinese people are taught to bear hardships and work diligently to overcome difficult times. After the First Opium War, the Chinese government was forced to sign a series of unequal treaties, and until the Communist Party established the People's Republic of China in Beijing on October 1, 1949, China still had nothing to feed its people. However, the traditional culture endured and continues to motivate the Chinese people to struggle for the dream of one day becoming a big power. One of the most impressive examples: China spent only two years and eight months from success of the atomic bomb on 1964 to the success of hydrogen bomb, compare to the Soviet Union who spent four years, and the United States who spent seven years and four months, China made the miracle and thus becoming the fifth country in the world who owns nuclear weapon.
 
Nowadays, China is not merely focused on its domestic development, but also in taking a larger responsibility in global development. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is one example of this commitment. As a developing country in Asia, China can (and should) stand out in sharing infrastructure construction resources, as well as representing the interests of other developing countries to benefit from the global economy. This sense of responsibility comes from the Chinese spirit, transmitted throughout the generations- the spirit of sharing resources, helping others out, and respecting differences.
 
What’s worth mentioning is that several current governing approaches implemented by Chinese government are far from perfect. Furthermore, China has a significant social responsibility to conserve energy and reduce emissions, narrow the gap between the rich and the poor, as well as close this same gap between cities and suburbs. More importantly, aside from Chinese traditional culture, China also needs to draw lessons from global development and other diversified cultures. By doing so, I believe that China can play an indispensable role in the worldwide innovations for peace and development. 

AIIBs President Advisory Panel Adds 11th Member

An eleventh member has been added to the AIIB's president's advisory panel, former Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz. This panel is intended to provide objective guidance to the AIIB President, Jin Liqun.

The other members include: former Prime Minister of Pakistan Shaukat Aziz, former Finance Minister of Sweden Anders Borg, former Prime Minister of Japan Yukio Hatoyama, Secretary-General of the Global Foundation Steve Howard, Chair Professor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy and former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance of South Korea, Dr Oh-Seok Hyun, former Finance Minister of Nigeria and the former Managing Director of the World Bank Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Finance Minister of Timor-Leste Emilia Pires, former US Ambassador, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Global Strategic Associates Paul Speltz, Professor at the London School of Economics and former Chief Economist at the World Bank Lord Nicholas Stern and former Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR Tung Chee-Hwa. 


Belarus Seeks Increased Cooperation with Major Development Organizations

Belarus seeks to join the AIIB, in order to gain access to its wealth of development funds. Belarus has recently signed on to a deal with the IMF as well, in hopes of improving their credit rating and increasing their options for lower cost credit resources. These moves are in line with the efforts of the Belarus government to become more credible in the eyes of the OECD. 


A Shift in Development Financing 

Bond market creation in Asia could be the solution to risk-averse banks who have been unwilling to invest in long-term infrastructure development projects in the region. Executives at both the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank see bond markets as a way the private sector can become more involved in development financing. 


​Belgium hopes to join

Belgium is hoping to become a member of the AIIB sometime this coming year. This is part of a larger strategy in order to help become closer with the One Belt One Road initiative led by China. The Belgian ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge are strategically located in Europe for the 'belt and road' plan. 


Big appointment for Okonjo-Iweala
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Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former finance minister of Nigeria has been appointed the newest member of the international advisory panel of the AIIB. Weeks before, she had rejected proposals to take an appointment with the Buhari administration to stop the economic recession in Nigeria. The panel consists of 10 other members including former finance ministers, a former World Bank chief economist, among others in a position to provide strategic advice to the President. 


Philippine Finance Secretary talks Project Financing

In light of the recent visit of Philippine President Duterte to China, new discussion in the Philippine administration is surfacing concerning its membership in the AIIB. The Finance Secretary, Carlos G. Dominguez III, stated that the country has high hopes for addressing many of its infrastructure needs with the help of the bank. It is estimated that roughly 8 trillion Philippine pesos ($165,778,080,000.00 USD) will be allocated for infrastructure project spending. Dominguez also stated that the administration is working to quickly finalize AIIB ratification through the Senate in order to get projects underway.


More Concerning Duterte's Hopes with China

The Philippines is dominating AIIB news this week as president Duterte's recent visit to China is in the spotlight. Duterte stated that his primary discussion topics will revolve around infrastructure and energy development. The Philippines hopes to benefit from the bank's projects as well as increase its trade connectivity with Europe via the One Belt, One Road initiative.

Singapore's Tone on China and the U.S.

Singaporean prime minister invites China to increase their involvement in the region. He went a step further to claim that the US has become a "benign force", seemingly in order to encourage China's advancement. 


Foreign Private Investors or Development Institutions?

Infrastructure needs are growing into a top priority for many nations in Southeast Asia. In fact, Vietnam is making great strides in order to meet it's infrastructure needs, while governments in countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines are putting the issue of addressing the infrastructure gap on their political agendas and re-election campaigns. 

The question is brought up as to "how much of this will be done by foreign private investors and how much by the new development institutions on the regional landscape led by China's One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative" as mentioned in the article by project finance head of HSBC, James Cameron.


Controversy around China's Silk Road Initiative Persists 

China's silk road initiative has touched more than 60 countries and invested billions of dollars into infrastructure development in these countries. Critics have accused China of investing in these foreign countries in order to build markets for them to expand into. China has responded to these criticisms by stating that the movement has been inclusive from that start. 


Dream Bridge

Bangladesh is building a 6.15 km bridge on the Padma River which will cost $3 billion. The "Dream Bridge" is one of the key projects behind Bangladesh's goal of being an middle-income economy by 2021 and developed by 2041. This development effort is led by the AIIB which has committed a capital of $100 billion for similar projects.
 

Reliable Partners

China's President Xi Jinping's visit to Bangladesh shows growing economic ties as well as the partnership between the two countries in the "quest to reach new markets." China is behind the recent AIIB which is behind many projects in Asia worth millions of dollars. Bangladesh is turning to China to cover deficits faced because of the position they are in financially. 
 

Potential Projects in Philippines 

The Philippines wants to formally join the AIIB before President Duterte's trip to China this week. This involves an international treaty that needs to go through senate ratification. If approved, President Duterte has many infrastructure projects in mind to implement during his term in office.