BEIJING, Sept 6 (Reuters) – The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) said on Wednesday it was on track to meet its target of about $4 billion in loan approvals by the end of 2017 with a pipeline of projects to be approved towards the end of the year.
The bank has approved $3 billion in loans since it began operating 20 months ago.
“We do see very strong demand and have strong pipelines. Many member countries brought projects to us, but our limitation is the capacity to process,” Joachim von Amsberg, AIIB vice president for policy and strategy, told a news briefing.
AIIB has about 120 staff, compared to the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, which each have several thousand employees. The bank says such staffing levels limit its capacity to handle some potential project areas.
The AIIB has excluded nuclear projects from is energy sector strategy, saying it would only consider supporting “very special cases” related to improving the safety of such plants.
“We don’t do everything,” von Amsberg said, adding the bank was not making a judgement about nuclear technology but said the sector required “too much specialized staff skills and we cannot afford to invest in it.”
Falling prices for solar equipment made that sector a focus. The bank has offered Egypt a $210 million loan to finance 11 solar power plants with a combined capacity of 490 megawatts.
The AIIB vice president said the solar projects in Egypt could spur on similar projects in neighbouring countries.
However, environmental groups have criticised the bank for saying it was open to investing in coal projects.
“It is a very healthy debate. But our starting point is our client countries, not fuel,” von Amsberg said, adding that no such project was included in its project pipeline.