Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Ahmad Akhundi, who is leading a high-ranking Iranian delegation in China, met and talked with the head of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) Jin Liqun on Tuesday evening.
The Iranian minister delineated the country’s plans for development of infrastructure sectors in air, rail and road areas as well as for renewal of the fleet in relevant fields.
Akhundi also expressed willingness to take advantage of the financial and credit resources of AIIB recalling that “the Islamic Republic of Iran aims to implement numerous projects in the mentioned fields via assistance of financial institutions.”
He referred to Build–Operate–Transfer (BOT) and Build-Lease-Transfer (BLT) as preferred financial arrangements for financing the aforementioned projects.
AIIB president Jin Liqun, for his part, expressed satisfaction towards presence of Iran’s Akhundi and his accompanying delegation in the Asian bank and enumerated aims and activities pursued by the monetary institution; “the main focus of AIIB is placed on infrastructure projects.”
The Islamic Republic of Iran remains as a member of AIIB’s founding board and the issue holds great significance for the stakeholders of the bank, he continued.
Liqun also voiced AIIB’s readiness to provide financial services to Iran’s priority projects once they are introduced to the Asian bank.
The Chinese official, furthermore, said AIIB is capable of optimizing and restoring decrepit buildings and settlements of Iran, a proposal which was welcomed by the Iranian roads minister.
Later at the meeting, Abbas Akhundi urged AIIB to deploy a delegation to Tehran so that they could evaluate the country’s projects to find the best approached towards bilateral cooperation.
The AIIB, an international financial institution proposed by China to invest in infrastructure projects in the Asia-Pacific region, was created in October 2014 and currently has 57 founding members.
As one of the founders of AIIB, the Islamic Republic of Iran joined the bank on April 7, 2014 as the 34th member.
Iran’s membership of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a step towards actualizing Resistant Economy policies which pertain to effective exploitation of economic capacities offered by international organizations.
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