MADRID, March 29 -- China's efforts to help create the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) symbolize the new financial muscle of the region and China itself, a Spanish expert has said.
The AIIB is a useful complementary tool for world financial order as it provides mechanisms to transfer the global weight of the region's economies to other areas, said Xulio Rios, director of the Observatory of Chinese Politics.
The bank is a great opportunity for European companies, which helps explain why the governments of the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and Luxembourg have stood up to the initial pressure of the United States to boycott the initiative and have instead voiced their willingness to become members of the bank, according to Rios.
The establishment of the AIIB could serve to reduce Washington's influence in Asia, Rios said, adding the United States' firm control of the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank will not be enough to put a brake on China.
Rios believes the voting systems in some international financial organizations have become obsolete and reforms have remained inviable with U.S. opposition.
The following step points towards a greater liberalization of the yuan and its rate of exchange, according to the expert.
Rios highlighted that the conjugation of great financial power of China and improvements in expertise in certain areas have allowed Asia to open the door to a new development impetus from other geopolitical areas of the globe.
The AIIB represents an important challenge for the Japan-U.S. presence of the region, as well as an imminent international institutional renovation.
The bank can become an important geo-strategical tool, which is linked to other projects such as the development of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Maritime Silk Road initiative, according to Rios, adding such projects will determine the rise of new economic realities, which do not depend on the West.
