World Bank, IMF chiefs say willing to cooperate with AIIB

The heads of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday that the two organizations are willing to strengthen cooperation with the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to tackle the huge potential in the region.

"Infrastructure needs in the developing world are enormous. They are enormous in Asia for AIIB. Our full expectation is we will continue to work closely," said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim at a press conference ahead of the WB-IMF Spring meeting.

He said the World Bank has much more technical expertise than the AIIB has right now, and has every reason to do project preparation in collaboration with the AIIB.

"It looks like it may be in early days. Right now we are still waiting to see what exactly the AIIB will be doing," he added.

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), told the press Thursday that the proposal to have a completely dedicated institution that will focus on infrastructure on the regional basis is actually an attractive proposition,

"That is a welcome regional organization, the one which the IMF certainly is planning to cooperate," she said.

The Spring Meeting scheduled for April 17-19 in Washington D.C. will draw central bank governors, finance ministers and scholars to discuss key global economic issues and policy action.