Infrastructure Funds in Asia: How Do We Challenge the New Model?
In India, the IFC-backed India Infrastructure Fund supported the GMR Kamalanga plant which displaced local communities and caused environmental harms. Now the AIIB is investing in infrastructure funds in India and in the Emerging Asia Fund – threatening to repeat the same problems. How can we challenge this new ‘hands-off’ model of development and ensure the rights of communities are respected?
Chair: Madhuresh Kumar, National Alliance of Peoples Movement
Speakers: Anuradha Munshi, CFA; Petra Kjell, BIC-Europe; Aashima Subberwal, Program for Social Action
As a part of the Peoples’ Convention on Infrastructure Financing, this workshop on ‘Infrastructure Funds in India How Do We Challenge the New Model ‘is being co-organised with the BIC-Europe at the YWCA, Mumbai.
Background
The Third Annual Governors Meeting of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank [AIIB] will be held in Mumbai, India from 24-25 June 2018. This two-year-old multilateral bank is investing in all major sectors, including energy, without robust policies on environmental-social safeguards, transparent public disclosure and an accountability/complaint handling mechanism. Out of the total 24 projects, it has financed, USD 4.4 billion has already been approved. India is the biggest recipient from AIIB with more than 1.2 billion USD supporting about six projects including Transmission lines, Capital City Development at Amravati, rural roads etc with another 1 billion USD in proposed projects.
These data are but a few from among the many that come out periodically which, we are aware, will straightaway affect our democratic systems, land, water, forests, food, livelihoods, structures and the very air we breathe on a daily basis. All these raise our concerns to an alarming level that we are forced to reflect and act on the rapid ‘reforms’ which happen in the guise of development. Unlike World Bank and ADB who claim their development agenda in the name of reduction in poverty and inequality, AIIB never conceals their huge interests in infrastructure financing.
Peoples’ Convention on Infrastructure Financing – A Response to AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) Annual Meeting is the coming together of various groups, on June 21-23, 2018, working towards a just and equitable society, threatened by the massive infrastructure push resulting in displacement and dispossession of the marginalized and destruction of natural resources, on which their livelihoods depend.
AIIB – A Sneak Peek into Challenges