Interview with AIIB Vice President: “China wants to learn from our standards”

Ludger Schuknecht, is Vice President of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Despite the overlapping crises, the bank wants to stick to its course. It is primarily looking for private financiers for investments in Asia.

Mr. Schuknecht, with 4.2 percent, Germany is the largest non-regional shareholder in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), in which China holds 26.6 percent. Why should the German taxpayer get involved with a development bank that is under Beijing’s influence in these times?

The AIIB belongs to the family of multilateral development banks. China holds a good quarter of the AIIB, the advanced countries also around a quarter, and the emerging and developing countries have around half. For our most important decisions, however, 75 percent of the votes are necessary – so no group can actually govern with that. It is important to Germany that our bank implements high standards. And for that it’s better to be there. As part of the developed world group, we can ensure that the Bank does its job properly.