AIIB board okays $100bn investment

Mumbai: Finance minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday said that the government is really impressed with the progress made by Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and informed that the board of AIIB has approved $100 million of investment in National Infrastructure Investment Fund (NIIF).

“Earlier today, I had an opening meeting with the president of AIIB. I was also given the good news that today the AIIB Board has approved an investment in the NIIF, the first tranche of $100mn has got approved today, which will be followed by a similar tranche,” the minister said while addressing the media after inaugurating the India Infrastructure Expo 2018.

The minister is in Mumbai to participate in the third annual meeting of AIIB. This is the first time that India is hosting the annual summit of AIIB, which will be addressed by Narendra Modi on Tuesday.

India is the second largest shareholder with a commitment of over $8 billion to the AIIB. “We are also the largest recipient of concessional finance for various infrastructure projects. Nearly 25 per cent of the total funds committed by AIIB have been committed for projects in India, both in the government sector and the private sector, which is a matter of great satisfaction,” he added.

Earlier in the day, economic affairs secretary S.C. Garg said investment in NIIF could be leveraged 10-12 times, which can result in upto $2.4 billion flowing into infrastructure projects in India.