On 25 June 2016, Secretary to the Treasury Gabriel Makhlouf represented New Zealand as Governor at the First Annual Meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in Beijing.
In his statement to the Board of Governors, Mr Makhlouf said that "the importance of multilateral institutions that promote cooperative partnership and the pursuit of shared interests has probably never been greater". Governors congratulated the Bank on the approval of its first four projects in Pakistan, Tajikistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
Dear Chairman and Fellow Governors
I would like to thank the People’s Republic of China for hosting the first Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
I would also like to congratulate President Jin and the staff of the Bank on what they have achieved since the Bank became operational in January.
Although you are still few in number, you have made considerable progress in appointing senior staff, institutionalising the Bank’s administrative procedures and policies and developing a project pipeline.
In this age of global flows of trade, capital, people and knowledge, working together across institutional and country boundaries is essential.
The importance of multilateral institutions that promote cooperative partnership and the pursuit of shared interests has probably never been greater.
I would like to congratulate the Bank’s management on the clearly collaborative path that you have set by seeking out co-financing opportunities with other Multilateral Development Banks.
Can I also encourage you, as you develop a strategy for the Bank’s investment programme, to consider where the AIIB can explicitly add value to the infrastructure-financing landscape.
In my own country of New Zealand, I have seen the benefits of having a clearly articulated strategy for infrastructure development, as reflected in our thirty-year Infrastructure Plan.
We look forward to working with Bank management as you develop your own investment strategy for the region.
We also maintain a strong interest the development of the Compliance, Effectiveness and Integrity Unit, which will play such a critical role in the Bank’s operations.
Finally, I would like to offer a warm welcome to the many prospective member countries seeking to join the Bank, of whom there are representatives here today.
We wholeheartedly support the admission of new members into the Bank, and look forward to working with you in the future.