AIIB to continue vaccine funding for developing nations in 2022

By Aaron Saldanha

(Reuters) – China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will continue to finance developing countries acquire COVID-19 vaccines, a senior executive said on Thursday.

Last year, AIIB had set up a funding facility to help public and private sectors fight the pandemic. The investment bank has approved 42 projects amounting to over $10.3 billion, as of Nov. 5. Its Crisis Recovery Facility has up to $13 billion allocated to support AIIB members and clients in withstanding economic and health impacts of the health crisis.

Speaking on the sidelines of COP26 in Glasgow, Danny Alexander, vice president for policy and strategy at AIIB, told Reuters that vaccine financing has a massive development impact. “Until you can get the pandemic under control, all these other things (environmental funding) we’re talking about can’t happen,” Alexander said.

Last month, the bank said https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/aiib-fully-align-with-paris-agreement-climate-goals-by-mid-2023-2021-10-26 it planned to fully align its operations with the Paris Agreement climate goals by July 1, 2023. The bank said it expects to approve $50 billion in climate finance-related projects by 2030, a four-fold increase in annual climate finance commitments since it started publicly reporting the number in 2019.

Alexander said the investment bank is looking to encourage private investments in its green projects through equity, providing guarantees on equity investments and syndicating loans from financiers.