Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-03-30
As of March 28, 42 countries — including 10 from Europe — have officially announced their intent to join the China-proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
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| An illustration showing nations lining up to jump on the AIIB bus. (Illustration/CFP) |
As of March 28, 42 countries — including 10 from Europe — have officially announced their intent to join the China-proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
Due to the
expansion of the AIIB's circle of friends in Europe, a focus now is where the
bank's European office will be located, with London and Luxembourg having
emerged as the two most obvious competitors, Shanghai's China Business News
reports.
Although
Luxembourg has not caught as much attention as Britain, its strength should not
be overlooked. The Grand Duchy has the world's highest GDP per capita at
US$110,700 and like London it is one of the world's biggest financial centers.
Furthermore, Luxembourg is the largest fund center in the world after the
United States, and is the premier private banking center in the eurozone.
Paul
Steinmetz, Luxembourg's ambassador to China, told China Business News that
Luxembourg is hoping to host the AIIB's Europe office and looks forward to
sharing its professional knowledge with China. Steinmetz noted that Luxembourg
is home to the headquarters of the European Investment Bank and is an active
member of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The chief of the ADB's regional
liaison office in Bangkok is from Luxembourg, he added.
Luxembourg
has also been competing with London to become an offshore center for trade in
the renminbi and joining the AIIB is a crucial step in consolidating this aim.
Liu Ying, a
research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University
of China in Beijing, said the purpose of the United Kingdom joining the AIIB is
to secure its status as a global financial center. Liu said Britain has shown
great confidence in China and the renminbi, evidenced by the fact that it is
the first G7 nation to sign a bilateral currency swap agreement with China and
is speeding up its efforts to establish a yuan settlement system and to become
an offshore yuan center.
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