PH hopes future lender will tend to poorer members

THE PHILIPPINES is urging the soon-to-be-established Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to be more transparent and put in place an effective governance structure.

National Treasurer Roberto B. Tan, who will attend a meeting on the AIIB in Beijing this week, said that the governance structure of the China-backed lender would need to be “responsive to the needs of the poorer members.”

Tan told reporters last Friday that, specifically, the Philippines would take a closer look at the role of the AIIB’s board of directors, as well as how project priorities and conditions would be protected while ensuring the integrity of the procurement environment.

According to reports, AIIB currently has over 50 prospective member-countries, including the Philippines and China—the latter being its biggest contributor.

Last month, Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima said that the country’s inclusion in AIIB’s final list of members would be contingent on the institution’s goals.

“We’re still in the nonbinding stage. We haven’t committed,” Purisima had said, adding that President Aquino would decide on the matter by the middle of this year.

In October last year, the Philippine government, through the Department of Finance, signed a nonbinding agreement to join discussions aimed at threshing out issues ahead of the bank’s formal establishment.

A total of 21 Asian countries have signed the memorandum of understanding to establish AIIB. Apart from the Philippines and China, the others are Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, India, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Burma (Myanmar), Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

The $50-billion AIIB is set to be established this year.

According to reports, the China-backed lender is being positioned to become an alternative to the financial institutions backed by the United States.

China may have a stake of up to 50 percent in AIIB.