AIIB approves additional $750 million loan to strengthen India's Covid response

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) approved an additional $750 million loan to strengthen India’s Covid-19 response, according to a release on Wednesday.
Co-financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the loan will go towards bolstering economic aid for businesses, including for the informal sector, expanding social safety nets for the needy, and strengthening the country’s health care systems, the release said.

The latest support came after the AIIB approved a $500 million package co-financed by the World Bank under its COVID-19 Crisis Recovery Facility (CRF) to India on May 8, bringing total support to the country from the infrastructure bank to $1.25 billion under the CRF.

This also brought total support India received from the Beijing-headquartered bank up to $3.06 billion since it began operations in 2016.

“Many of the world’s low and middle-income countries are still in the early stages of the health crisis but are already feeling the impacts of the pandemic. This poses an enormous risk for millions across India who have only recently emerged from poverty,” said DJ Pandian, vice president of investment operations at AIIB, adding, “Our support to India also aims to ensure economic resilience to prevent long-term damage to the productive capacity, including human capital, of India’s economy.”

The multilateral lender initially set up its Covid-19 CRF, with a $5 billion investment which was later doubled to $10 billion, to make funds available to its members for urgent economic, financial and public health pressures and quick recovery from the crisis.

In total the AIIB has approved $4.05 billion to its members under this facility, including $355 million to China, $500 million to Pakistan, $250 million to Bangladesh and $750 million to Indonesia and the Philippines each.