Economic power broker
Jin Liqun, president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, is leading an institution that is changing the geoeconomic and geopolitical landscape. Together with the New Development Bank founded by the major emerging economies, AIIB reflects the growing power and influence of emerging markets. Under Jin’s leadership, the bank has garnered 57 prospective founding members—and has done so over misconceived strong opposition from the U.S. With his strong personality and leadership, he is quickly forging AIIB into an effective development bank, working cooperatively with other multilateral institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, showing that one can combine high lending standards with effective development. Going forward, one can anticipate that AIIB will demonstrate that governance matters: with control in the hands of emerging markets, and especially China, lending will be different from that of established institutions, like the World Bank, controlled by advanced countries, and especially the U.S.
Stiglitz is a Nobel Prize–winning economist