AIIB to Increase Annual Lending to USD 17 Billion

New Delhi, Jul 29 (PTI) AIIB vice president (investment solutions) Ajay Bhushan Pandey on Tuesday said the multilateral development bank is looking to scale up average annual lending to USD 17-18 billion in the next 3-4 years in view of growing demand for infrastructure development.

Currently, annual funding done by Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is around USD 10 billion.

The Beijing-based lender has so far provided loans worth USD 12 billion to India. Out of that, he said, AIIB has provided USD 1.8 billion to the private sector so far.

Speaking about the pipeline for sovereign funding, Pandey said, AIIB is having a series of meetings with various line ministries to create a pipeline of sovereign projects.

"Our message to the ministries and state governments is this: this is your bank and you must make optimum use of the resources available," he said at an event organised by Ficci here.

On Monday, he said, "we had a detailed meeting with the Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, and Secretary, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation on the water sector, including revival of many dams, the Namami Gange project and the inter-linking of rivers."

Besides, he said, "we are going to have discussions with the ministries of health and power and then with the chief minister of Maharashtra and state officials to discuss building a pipeline of infrastructure projects both in public and private sector."

As far as the private sector is concerned, he said, renewal energy, green energy, green mobility and affordable housing are the focus areas for funding.

"We are also open to funding digital infrastructure like data centres, digital communication or innovative projects like AI and semiconductor," he said.

Observing that India has doubled capital expenditure but the need is much higher, Pandey said, the country would need investment of about USD 1.5 trillion in infrastructure development as per an estimate.

This huge investment requirement cannot be met by the government alone, but there is a need to tap several sources including private sector, sovereign wealth fund, pension fund etc, he said.

Participation of a multilateral development banks like AIIB helps in de-risking any infra project, he said, adding, the selection process is very stringent and basis the selection, other financial firms also pitch in with their fund.

Given AIIB's thrust on the private sector, he said, the bank aims to gradually raise financing to the private sector to 50 per cent of total finance by 2030.