Hosting AIIB's 2nd annual meeting to have great meaning for S.Korea

Hosting the China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)'s second annual meeting will have a great meaning for South Korea, Seoul's finance ministry officials said on May 30.

The second meeting is scheduled to be held for three days from June 16 in South Korea's southern resort island of Jeju. It would mark the first time that the AIIB's annual meeting is held outside China.

Officials at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance held a background briefing for foreign correspondents in Seoul to explain the country's hosting the global event.

"AIIB is an international institute, so the first annual meeting was held at the headquarters in Beijing and the next one is to be held outside the headquarters," said a ministry official who declined to be identified.

The official said South Korea became the first country to host an annual meeting of the AIIB outside China, which he said would "have a great meaning" for South Korea.

One of the reasons for South Korea to be picked as the host nation was that the country was the most fitted for the AIIB's philosophy, the official noted.

The AIIB was officially launched in January 2016 with 57 founding members. The number of members currently jumped to 77, according to the ministry official.

The multilateral development bank was established to support infrastructure investment into developing countries in Asia and beyond and help those nations economically developed.

South Korea fits within the thrust of the AIIB philosophy as it transformed itself from a war-torn country receiving development assistance from other states into a country providing official development assistance (ODA).

The ministry official said South Korea was the first case in the world to turn itself into an ODA provider from an ODA receiver.

The upcoming AIIB annual meeting would be attended, in principle, by finance ministers of the 77 member states. Official sessions would be chaired by South Korea's finance minister who doubles as a deputy prime minister.

The meeting would come under the theme of "economically, environmentally, socially sustainable investment."