Q. With reference to Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), consider the following statements:
- AIIB has more than 80 member nations.
- India is the largest shareholder in AIIB.
- AIIB does not have any members from outside Asia.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (UPSC Prelims 2019)
Answer:
1 only
Notes: The correct answer is
[A] 1 only. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank headquartered in Beijing that began operations in 2016.
- Statement 1 – Correct: AIIB started with 57 founding members but has grown rapidly. It currently has over 100 approved members worldwide, representing a significant majority of the world's population and economy. Therefore, having more than 80 member nations is a factually correct assessment of its current scale.
- Statement 2 – Incorrect: China is the largest shareholder in the AIIB, holding approximately 26% of the voting power. India is the second-largest shareholder (holding about 7.5% of the voting power), followed by Russia and Germany.
- Statement 3 – Incorrect: Despite its name, the AIIB is a global institution. It includes many non-regional members from outside Asia, including countries from Europe (e.g., Germany, France, UK), South America (e.g., Brazil), and Africa (e.g., Egypt, Ethiopia).
The AIIB was established to help bridge the massive infrastructure financing gap in Asia, focusing on sustainable infrastructure and cross-border connectivity. It maintains a "Triple-A" credit rating from major international rating agencies.