2015年CRI Preparations for AIIB Well Underway: Officials（在线收听）

Speaking at an international seminar held by China's Finance Ministry, deputy head of the Chinese working group of the bank Chen Huan said China is ready to go.

"We are planning to start our banking business at the end of this year and we will formally launch the AIIB next year. Everything is going on smoothly according to our schedule. We are ready to start assessment of the investment projects. Once they are approved by the board of directors, the projects will get started soon."

The National People's Congress, China's legislative organ, will examine the AIIB agreement in November.

If approved, it will lay the legal framework for the setup of the bank.

The China-proposed bank now has 57 founding members.

It needs at least 10 nods from the members to get the agreement into effect.

Meantime, the equity amount of the 10 members should be no less than 50 percent of the total equity of the bank, which is 100 billion US dollars.

An official with China's Finance Ministry Zheng Quan said China's approval will be crucial.

"As the first majority shareholder of AIIB, if China approves the agreement, the amount would be 30 percent. With the approvals from other members, the remaining 20 percent will be done and the bank will be established as a legal person. So China's approval is very important."

Currently, the Asia-Pacific receives an annual investment of 20 billion US dollars from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

However, the money is still hardly enough to meet the booming demands for infrastructure construction in the region, even with the participation of the AIIB.

Chinese vice Finance Minister Shi Yaobin said the private sector is encouraged to take part in the investment, including the Public Private Partnership, or the PPP model.

"According to China's Commerce Ministry, the total amount of private assets in Asia-Pacific has reached 35 trillion U.S. dollars, but private investment for infrastructure and interconnection is limited. The PPP model will mobilize more funds and increase the supplement of infrastructure as well as improve the efficiency in using the fund. Next we will cooperate with other economies to share experiences and promote more PPP projects in Asia-Pacific."

Officials said infrastructure projects in energy, transportation, rural construction and urban development will be the priorities of the bank.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank was proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013.

50 countries have signed the bank's articles of agreement this June, laying the ground rules for officially launching the multilateral lender.

For CRI, I'm Qian Shanming.