Is new bank good for Asia? China expands regional influence through funding of infrastructure projects

WHEN visiting Indonesia just over a year ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping surprised a lot of people when he announced a proposal to set up a multilateral lender that will finance the building of infrastructure in Asia.

This wasn’t a tentative floating of an idea. From the get-go, China wanted it to happen soon and much was going on behind the scenes to gather support for the project. Fast forward to yesterday, when about 20 Asian countries (including Malaysia) were represented at the launch in Beijing of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).