The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the OPEC Fund for International Development (the OPEC Fund) have signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen investment.
A new partnership between the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the OPEC Fund for International Development (the OPEC Fund) aims to expand their cooperation to finance global public and private sector projects, promoting sustainable, resilient and high-standard infrastructure development.
AIIB president and chair of the board, Jin Liqun, commented: “We look forward to further strengthening our collaboration with OPEC Fund and fostering a deeper partnership in exploring common strategic areas of interest. This memorandum of understanding will allow AIIB and the OPEC Fund to leverage our respective resources to more effectively develop sustainable infrastructure projects. It will also enable AIIB to scale up efforts to unlock private capital for our Members to finance Infrastructure for Tomorrow.”
OPEC Fund director-general Abdulhamid Alkhalifa added “We are very pleased to take our cooperation with AIIB to the next level. This memorandum of understanding signals the ambition and preparedness of our institutions to deliver more by combining our experiences and resources. The size of the global infrastructure gap is so huge that all actors, public and private, must work together. Multilateral development banks play a particularly significant role, because our lending is counter-cyclical and acts as a catalyst to mobilize additional investment.”
To date, AIIB and the OPEC Fund have cofinanced five projects of more than $1bn in Bangladesh, Egypt, Nepal, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. The new partnership will allow the two institutions to identify cofinancing and co-investment opportunities for projects and programs of common interest in infrastructure development of sectors such as energy, water, transport, digital and social infrastructure in health and education.
