Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel to attend inaugural meeting of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

Kathmandu January 12- Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel is leaving for China on Thursday to attend the first meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a new China-led multilateral development bank, which will finance infrastructure projects in Asia.

The inaugural meeting of the AIIB will take place from January 16 to 17. During the meeting, founding member countries from around the globe will announce commencement of the operation of the $100-billion AIIB, which is expected to approve the first lot of projects in the second half of 2016.

The meeting of the Board of Governors will also elect AIIB’s board members and the president. Currently, Jin Liqun, China’s former vice minister for finance, is serving as president-designate of the AIIB. He is expected to be elected as AIIB’s first president during the board of governors meeting.

Finance Minister Paudel is scheduled to meet Jin on January 17, according to Mohan Chapagain, finance minister’s press secretary.

During his stay in China, Minister Paudel is also expected to meet with Chinese finance and commerce ministers.

Nepal had formally become one of the founding members of the AIIB on June 29 after former finance minister Ram Sharan Mahat put the initials on the AIIB charter — officially known as the Articles of Agreement (AoA).

The AoA has so far been signed by 56 countries, making them founding members of the AIIB. The AoA came into force on December 25. Nepali Parliament ratified the AoA in late December.

Nepal has acquired 809 units of shares, or 0.081 per cent stake, worth $80.9 million in the AIIB — which will provide another window for the government to acquire cheap foreign credit to finance development projects.