Friendly Competition for Co-Progressive Development: The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank vs. the Bretton Woods Institutions

Abstract

The AIIB is the first major multilateral development bank in a generation and the first multinational institution initiated by China to support regional economic growth and inject new impetus to global governance reform. From the beginning, the AIIB must seek ways to set itself apart from the establishment as represented by the BWIs. This article proposes that the new AIIB break with conventional wisdom and the business as usual of the BWIs and adopt the concept of co-progressiveness for international development. Co-progressive development entails a normative principle that puts self-initiation and external inducement as a means of promoting self-initiated action at the center of international development agendas and programs. As a more proactive and effective system of international development is urgently needed, this article argues that the AIIB and the BWIs should engage in a friendly competition in which players compete for a common goal. Within the AIIB, development strategies, models, policies, as well as expertise and knowledge originating from such developing countries as emerging economies should be given equal or even prioritized consideration, as emerging economies have faced similar challenges and succeeded with innovative solutions. In doing so, the AIIB can lend legitimacy to its international foray, while the global development agenda will be advanced more effectively.