Ex-Chinese finance ministry official named to lead AIIB

Beijing: Former Chinese vice finance minister Jin Liqun has been elected to head the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Chinese government said on August 25. Jin was elected as the bank's "incoming president" at a two-day meeting of chief negotiators in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, according to a statement by China's finance ministry.

Beijing last month had named Jin as its preferred candidate to head the new institution. The AIIB has been viewed by some as a rival to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. The United States and Japan - the world's largest and third-largest economies, respectively - have notably declined to join. Jin has previously worked for both institutions. He was also formerly a top official at the China Investment Corporation, the country's sovereign wealth fund.

He has a master's degree in English literature, speaks fluent English and reportedly good French and was a Hubert Humphrey Fellow in economics at Boston University in 1987-88. Jin's selection had been widely expected as Beijing will initially have a 26.06 per cent share of the votes at the bank, giving it veto power over the choice of the president, which requires a 75 per cent majority. Beijing will be by far the largest AIIB shareholder at about 30 per cent, according to the legal framework signed by 50 founding member countries in late June.