Finance ministry seeks closer AIIB ties on projects and staffing

The finance ministry said Monday that Deputy Prime Minister Koo Yun-cheol met Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank President Zou Jiayi, who was visiting Korea, to pursue closer cooperation on development projects and staff exchanges.

Zou's trip was her first visit to an advanced donor country in Asia since taking office in January and reflected her commitment to strengthening Korea-AIIB cooperation, the ministry said. Zou described Korea as the AIIB's fifth-largest shareholder and said, "The bank has been able to grow thanks to Korea's active contribution."

Koo said the AIIB had established itself as a global multilateral development bank after a decade of steady growth and that Zou's role would be important as it enters a new phase. He said Korean companies' technological capabilities and the AIIB's financing strength could create synergies in development projects, asked for support to produce tangible results from cooperation with Korean companies, and called for wider recruitment of Koreans across the bank, from senior posts to working-level roles.

Zou said the bank would strengthen technology-based infrastructure cooperation and personnel exchanges with Korea.

The AIIB has grown to 111 members from 57 at its January 2016 launch and has approved 373 development projects.