Finance minister expects AIIB to further support cross-border connectivity

China

Finance minister expects AIIB to further support cross-border connectivity

2025-06-25 22:11 Last Updated At：23:07

China's Minister of Finance Lan Fo'an said on Wednesday that he hopes that the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) can mobilize more resources for cross-border connectivity projects, at the the 10th Annual Meeting of the AIIB's Board of Governors in Beijing.

At the annual meeting running from Tuesday to Thursday, Lan noted that the AIIB first decided in 2020 to make "connectivity and regional cooperation" its strategic priority, saying that this is gradually becoming the AIIB's new comparative advantage among multilateral development banks.

"In 2024, cross-border connectivity projects accounted for 33 percent of the AIIB's total funding, which effectively supported connectivity in the Asia-Pacific region and its economic and trade cooperation with other regions. China looks forward to more vigorous support and measures of the AIIB in mobilizing more resources to support cross-border connectivity," said Lan.

As the AIIB marks its 10th anniversary, the multilateral development bank is playing an increasingly prominent role in advancing connectivity, green growth, and sustainable development across regions.

Founded in 2015, the AIIB has grown from 57 founding members to 110 across six continents, covering 81 percent of the world's population and 65 percent of global GDP.

Over the past decade, it has approved over 60 billion U.S. dollars in financing for 320 projects, leveraging more than 200 billion U.S. dollars in infrastructure investment.

From electrifying rural Bangladesh to building roads in Cote d'Ivoire, the AIIB-supported projects are narrowing infrastructure gaps and improving lives across continents.

China launches Shenzhou-23 manned spaceship

China's Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the country's northwest on Sunday, sending three astronauts to its orbiting space station.

The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, lifted off from the launch site at 23:08 Beijing Time (15:08 GMT).

The crew members consist of mission commander Zhu Yangzhu, and fellow astronauts Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying, who is also the first astronaut from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

In another notable first, one of the crew members is set to undertake a year-long stay aboard the space station, double the usual duration of previous Shenzhou missions.

After entering orbit, the Shenzhou-23 spaceship will perform a fast automated rendezvous and docking with the radial port of the space station core module Tianhe, forming a combination of three modules and three spacecraft.

Shenzhou-23 marks the 40th flight of China's manned spaceflight program and the seventh manned flight mission since the Tiangong space station entered its application and development phase in late 2022.