Indonesia seeks partners to get AIIB voting right, official says

[JAKARTA] Indonesia is seeking partners to qualify for voting rights in the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a finance ministry official said, as countries jostle for a voice at the new lender.

Southeast Asia's biggest economy expects to get a 4 per cent share in the AIIB, Suahasil Nazara, head of the finance ministry's fiscal agency, said in an interview in Jakarta on Thursday. It is trying to join other member countries, like the Maldives, to form a constituency with a combined share of 6 per cent, he said.

"If other countries can join with us, we can work together and decide who will be the executive director" representing the constituency, Mr Nazara said.

"But until now, we are still discussing it."

The AIIB is part of China's efforts to boost its influence in the region, where development funding has come from institutions such as the US-led World Bank and the Japan- steered Asian Development Bank for decades. The infrastructure bank will provide an opportunity for Asia's emerging economies to have a bigger voice at a multi-nation lender.

"We are still negotiating with other countries with a share, like ours, of below 6 per cent," Mr Nazara said. "We seek countries with shares of 2.5 per cent or 2 per cent, also 0.5 per cent; countries like the Maldives only have a 0.5 per cent share."

BLOOMBERG