AIIB expands COVID-19 crisis recovery facility to USD20 billion

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) Board of Directors has approved an extension of the COVID-19 Crisis Recovery Facility (CRF) till end-2023 to continue supporting the Bank’s Members in overcoming their most pressing pandemic and recovery challenges. The extension comes with an increase in the CRF’s financing volume, bringing AIIB’s total CRF financing from USD13 billion up to USD20 billion.

Under the extended CRF, AIIB will co-finance the procurement, distribution, and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics;  cofinance Policy-Based Financing for enhanced pandemic response, preparedness, and recovery; and (ii) finance essential COVID-19 emergency health care or urgent expenditure needs.

“The enormous scale of the pandemic has called for coordinated efforts from AIIB and other development partners to strengthen global response and enhance pandemic preparedness and response,” said AIIB President and Chair of the Board Jin Liqun. “It is imperative that we are able to continue to proactively and flexibly address our Members’ needs in this still challenging and uncertain environment. We must collaborate with our global partners to significantly increase our support to help Members’ efforts at saving lives, protecting livelihoods and vulnerable populations, and catalyzing a green, resilient and inclusive recovery.”

To support a broad-based and consistent recovery, AIIB will continue to deploy its regular financing of infrastructure projects within the terms of the Bank’s Corporate Strategy and its CRF financing. With the expanded CRF, AIIB will be equipped to respond to its clients’ demands which are expected to remain large and varied according to the path of the pandemic, the state of economic recovery, and country-specific circumstances.

“The CRF has been effective in assisting our Members to address their diverse emergency health care and economic needs,” said Sir Danny Alexander, Vice President for Policy and Strategy. “Our first priority is to support our member’s economic recovery by financing their sustainable infrastructure development. But we must also be able to respond quickly to immediate crisis recovery needs when and where they emerge, the extension and expansion of the CRF signal the Bank’s firm commitment to support our members through this pandemic, with special attention to the needs of low- and lower-middle-income Members.”

The CRF was launched in April 2020 as part of the coordinated international response to counter the COVID-19 crisis. Prior to the extension, the duration of the CRF was set until April 2022. As of March 4, 2022, AIIB has approved 46 CRF projects amounting to over USD11.5 billion.