S.Korea to host 2nd AIIB annual meeting this week
South Korea will host the second annual meeting of the China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) this week.
The AIIB annual meeting of the board of governors will continue for two days from June 16 at the International Convention Center in the country's southern resort island of Jeju.
The first annual meeting was held in Beijing last year.
Officially opened in January in 2016, the Beijing-based AIIB is a multilateral development bank initiated by China and supported by a wide rage of countries and regions, which will provide financing for infrastructure improvement in Asia.
About 2,000 government officials and journalists, including delegations of the AIIB members and international agency chiefs as well as financiers and businessmen will attend the meeting.
The second AIIB annual meeting will be held under the theme of "Sustainable Infrastructure," seeking strategic directions of the international infrastructure bank and making major decisions on the bank's management.
The hosting of the AIIB annual meeting will have a significant meaning to South Korea as it would be the first international event hosted by the new government, which was launched on May 10.
The finance ministry said the hosting would provide an opportunity for South Korea to promote its new economic policy and strengthen economic cooperation with major countries.
The ministry said South Korea planned to express its will at the meeting to actively contribute to Asia's economic development by sharing the country's development experience with AIIB members.
South Korea became Asia's No.4 economy from a war-torn country after the three-year Korean War ended in an armistice 1953. South Korea is the world's single country that successfully turned from official development assistance (ODA) receiver to ODA provider.
The opening session is scheduled to kick off at 2 p.m. local time (0500 GMT) on Friday. Before the session, the seminar of the AIIB governors will be held along with a briefing on the AIIB strategy.
The session of governors' meeting, the AIIB's supreme decision-making body in which chief delegates of members participate, is slated to be held twice on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.
A variety of bilateral meetings between chief delegates will be held on the sidelines of the official sessions.
For businessmen and financiers, various events are arranged such as the one-on-one meeting for businessmen, the investment forum for developing countries and the briefing session on South Korean companies relevant to infrastructure development.
Four seminars will be held, with experts on infrastructure investment and development in attendance.
