The Future of Asia’s Infrastructure: A Conversation with AIIB President Jin Liqun
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The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) plays a key role in Asia’s development finance landscape. From its establishment in 2015, the AIIB has grown significantly in size, scope, and ambition to address Asia’s urgent infrastructure needs. With over 100 current members, AIIB has approved over 250 projects with total investments surpassing $50 billion. At the bank’s annual meeting last September, the AIIB set an ambitious goal of tripling its annual lending to combat climate change, seeking to commit $50 billion for projects over the next decade.
Please join us for this important conversation between AIIB’s President and Chair of the Board of Directors, Jin Liqun, and Asia Society’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Kyung-wha Kang, on the AIIB’s evolution, current operations, and path going forward.
How has the AIIB’s mission and vision for infrastructure development in Asia changed in its first decade in operations? Where does AIIB see Asia’s most urgent and pressing infrastructure needs? How has the AIIB navigated the changing politics and dynamics of the region? And what are the bank’s top priorities going into its next decade of operations?
SPEAKERS

Jin Liqun is the inaugural President and Chair of the Board of Directors at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. On July 28, 2020, he was elected to serve a second term of five years, beginning on Jan. 16, 2021. Before being elected as the Bank’s first President, he served as Secretary-General of the Multilateral Interim Secretariat tasked with establishing the Bank. Jin has rich experience across the private and public sectors and with MDBs. He served as Chair of China International Capital Corporation Limited (China’s first joint-venture investment bank), Chair of the Supervisory Board of China Investment Corporation and Chair of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds.
He previously served as Vice President and then Ranking Vice President of the Asian Development Bank and as Alternate Executive Director for China at the World Bank and at the Global Environment Facility. Jin spent nearly two decades at the Chinese Ministry of Finance, reaching the rank of Vice Minister. He holds a master’s degree in English Literature from Beijing Institute of Foreign Languages (now Beijing Foreign Studies University) and was a Hubert Humphrey Fellow in the Economics Graduate Program at Boston University from 1987 to 1988. Jin is from the People’s Republic of China.

Dr. Kyung-wha Kang is Asia Society President and Chief Executive Officer (effective April 1, 2024). Dr. Kang is an accomplished diplomat who served as South Korea’s 38th Minister of Foreign Affairs (2017 to 2021)—the first woman to serve in this role in the nation’s history. She previously held key leadership roles at the United Nations and was appointed to senior positions by three consecutive Secretaries-General: as Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights under Kofi Annan, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs under Ban Ki-moon, and Senior Advisor on Policy to António Guterres.
Before joining the UN, Dr. Kang held various positions in the Korean Foreign Ministry. She served as Minister at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the UN, during which she chaired the 48th and 49th sessions of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. She also spearheaded efforts to highlight women with disabilities in drafting the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Dr. Kang holds MA and PhD degrees from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and her doctorate work was in the field of international and intercultural communication. She has served as Distinguished Professor at the Institute for Global Engagement & Empowerment, Yonsei University in Korea.
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