Russia presents 10 projects to AIIB for financing, none yet approved - source
MOSCOW. March 1 (Interfax) - Russia, a regional member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), has presented ten projects to the bank for financing in Russia, but none of them have been approved by the bank yet for further elaboration, a source familiar with the review process for the applications said.
The first Russian project presented to the AIIB last year was the Meridian expressway that will link China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and the European Union. First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said last November that Russia would soon discuss investment in the construction of this highway with the AIIB. Almost $8 billion will be needed to carry out this project, one of the participants in which is former Gazprom senior executive Alexander Ryazanov.
However, neither Meridian nor the projects presented later have been reviewed by the AIIB.
"It's quiet so far. We have now presented about ten projects, including Meridian, for possible consideration for financing within the context of the bank. At the moment, none of the projects are being considered and are not listed in the preliminary pool of projects being prepared for the future. [...] There is an approved list of projects for 2017-2018, and despite the proposition that everyone signed on to, that by the end of 2018 every regional member country of the bank in which projects can be implemented with AIIB funds should have at least one project considered, approved and accepted for elaboration, right now there isn't a single Russian project on this list," the source told Interfax.
It is not a question of the quality of the project applications, the source said. "[O]bviously some objections could be made to one or two projects, but when we're talking about ten, there are already slightly other reasons here," the source said.
All of the proposed projects are completely consistent with the bank's mandate, the source said. The proposals involve projects in the transportation sector, projects in regions bordering China and green energy projects with a significant environmental component.
"I'm not saying that all the projects are ideally worked out and ready to be submitted for approval, but one could start actively considering a whole range of them. This is not happening yet," the source said.
The political aspect "prevails" in the fact that not a single Russian project has been approved yet, the source said. In addition, the AIIB is not yet developing its own expert potential in order to transition to independent preparation of projects and to "form a project team within the institution," the source said.
"The bank is not setting [the goal of developing its expert potential] as a priority objective for itself, consequently it prefers to work and grow its portfolio by entering projects that are prepared by other multilateral development banks - the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other institutions. Since we do not participate in the ADB, the World Bank has taken a timeout in regard to Russia and there's also nothing with the EBRD, one could partly argue that the projects we are proposing do not envision the participation of another multilateral bank, which could be a constraining factor for the AIIB, since they realize that in their current state they will not be in a position to prepare, polish and administer this project," the source said.
