III. The AIIB will adopt international good practices and embrace high standards, striving to build a professional, efficient and clean platform for infrastructure investment.
As the first multilateral development bank proposed by China, the AIIB will actively draw upon the experiences and good practices of the existing multilateral development banks. It will adopt international norms and good practices, and embrace high standards in governance structure, operations, human resources, and management, among other aspects, to ensure the Bank will operate in a professional, efficient, transparent and clean manner.
On governance structure. The AIIB will adopt a modern governance structure which comprises three levels: the Board of Governors, the Board of Directors, and the Management. The Board of Governors is the highest decision making body of the Bank, and is vested by the Articles of Agreement to delegate authority to the Board of Directors as necessary. The Board of Directors will be non-resident initially and convene regularly to discuss major policy and operational issues. Effective oversight mechanism will be instituted to hold the Management responsible and accountable. The Bank would show zero tolerance towards corruption and fraud, and enforce rigorous policies and regulations to uphold integrity.
On operational policies. The Bank will respect and learn from the good practices and experiences of the existing multilateral development banks in terms of environment and social framework, procurement policy, project management, and debt sustainability assessment, with a view to putting into place strict and credible operational policies of the highest standards. Moreover, the AIIB will draw lessons from the "dos and don'ts" of the existing multilateral development banks, and explore better ways and practices to improve its operating efficiency and reduce costs.
On human resources management. China and other members will work in concert and provide guidance to the Secretariat through the Chief Negotiators' Meeting mechanism on matters of human resource management and staff recruitment, through formulating policies, procedures and criteria, so as to tap the global talent pool for management and staff positions through open, transparent and merit-based multilateral processes.
On project pipeline and headquarters establishment. All Prospective Founding Members will work together on project pipeline development to ensure the Bank would be fully geared for a stellar debut upon its official establishment. Moreover, as the host country, China will continue to deliver good services to facilitate work associated with the Bank's headquarters in Beijing, and provide strong and reliable support to enable efficient operation of the Bank.
The AIIB initiative has come a long way since its inception. Nevertheless, it is but a first step leading up to an "epic journey". More hard work lies ahead in our quest to build the AIIB into an international financial institution embodying the highest standards. I am convinced that with the concerted efforts of the 57 Prospective Founding Members, we will live up to the vision of building the AIIB into a multilateral development institution of the 21st Century, and contribute in a meaningful way to the great cause of regional and global development.
The author Lou Jiwei is Minister of Finance of China.
