00:01At COP30, the focus is shifting from big climate pledges towards concrete implementation and, more importantly, how to pay for that.
00:09Finance, Investment and Trade Day is examining ways to scale up climate finance and investment and promote environmental trade.
00:17Our correspondent Lee Jan-Hwa has been speaking to the vice president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
00:22Yeah, so if you look from the AIIB point of view, you know, we have, along with the other MDBs, in 2023, we financed about 137 billion U.S. dollars.
00:37And last year, you know, we increased, the whole financing increased by 10 percent.
00:43So we do recognize that, you know, the gap is $1.3 trillion.
00:47And how do we reach there?
00:48Right. And that is why, you know, one of the major focus, which, you know, the AIIB is trying to drive, that involving the private sector, you know, the private capital, because, you know, all, you know, so far the governments are concerned, sovereign governments are concerned, particularly you can see that emerging economies, global south, they have a huge fiscal constraints.
01:13You know, our goal is that by 2030, 50 percent of our financing will be in the private sector.
01:21And where are we today?
01:23Last year, we achieved this. This figure was 34 percent.
01:27We hope that in the next few years, maybe before 2030, we will try to go to a level where our 50 percent of our financing will be to the private sector.
01:38Do you think the private sector will be enough to fill the gap?
01:41And many investors tend to think that developing country projects are high risk and low return.
01:48What do you do to convince the private sector?
01:50One is that putting our own capital, you know, if the AIIB or, you know, the other multilateral development banks, if they are putting their own money, it means that maybe, you know, they can also take the risk.
02:02That is one. Second is that we have to work with the national governments and create an enabling environment, create an appropriate regulatory institution to protect the investments made by the private sector.
02:17Not only to protect the investment made by the private sector, they are also able to generate enough return to attract more and more capital in future.
02:25And what kinds of projects do you tend to invest in?
02:28We are there to invest in the sustainable infrastructure and other productive sectors.
02:35And our definition of infrastructure is very broad.
02:38You know, the energies, renewable energy, then transport, then the water, then the health and education, you know, the and then the transport and regional connectivity and also the digital connectivity, digital infrastructure.
02:52In the last about nine years, we have invested in 339 projects in more than 39 countries and which the total cumulative amount is more than 62 billion U.S. dollars.
03:06So it seems like from your perspective that investors are still quite passionate about fighting climate crisis that we're looking at right now.
03:14But COP president says that developed countries are losing their enthusiasm.
03:19So what's your take on that?
03:20I think, you know, I mean, there may be there may be, you know, in some quarters.
03:25But what is the need of the hour is that put this information in the, you know, you know, share this information with all these stakeholders and then present these facts.
03:38Because when I'm saying that, you know, AIIB or the other multilateral development banks, if they are able to raise money, right, if the pension funds of the world or the sovereign, you know, the sovereign funds of the world, if they are interested in investing in the, investing in the climate oriented projects, then, then, you know, where is the, you know, you know, what is the trigger for pessimism?
04:06So I think, you know, you know, one has to view from that perspective.
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