AIIB head fields questions from news executives

Nguyen Hai Van, chief, Vietnam News

AIIB is considering some projects in Asia. Are all of those projects with the founding members?

We are going to deliver the first batch of projects for board consideration in late June. All the projects will be in Asian member countries and I am very happy to see, geographically, they are covering broad areas, including ASEAN countries, south Asian countries and central Asian countries. It's very gratifying to see that geographically we cover so many countries. We will have the second batch and the third batch by the end of this year. At this moment, we are considering projects with Asian member countries. I'm sure very soon we will be able to cover non-Asian countries, particularly if these countries' economic relations with Asian countries are very strong.

You've mentioned considering investing outside Asia. Very recently, Russian President Putin said he invited the AIIB to invest in Russia. Are you going to consider investing in Russian projects?

We finance infrastructure projects in any member countries that are eligible for our funding. It's very clear. But as I said, any project proposed by any government must meet our three basic requirements. So I cannot prejudge any project.