Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank's Approves First Loans

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank's (AIIB) board of directors has approved its first four loans totalling 509 million US dollars on the eve of its first annual meeting Saturday. 
The four loans are earmarked to finance four separate projects, with three part of co-financing with multilateral development bank partners, the AIIB announced. 
The projects include a loan of 165 million dollars to bring power to rural Bangladesh; a 216.5 million-dollars loan to improve Indonesian substandard housing, which is expected to be co-financed with the World Bank (WB); a loan of 100 million dollars to finish building a motor way in Pakistan, co-financing with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Britain's Department for International Development (DFID); and a 27.5 million-dollar loan to upgrade a road in Tajikistan, co-financing with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). 
The move happened just one day before the first AIIB annual meeting, which began Saturday in Beijing and will last until Sunday. 
These projects, which span the energy, urban development and transportation sectors, will help "bridge the region's critical infrastructure financing gap and strengthen regional connectivity," said AIIB president Jin Liqun.