AIIB commits $60M to STIC Asia Infrastructure Innovation Fund

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved $60 million as a commitment to the STIC Asia Infrastructure Innovation Fund.

The fund will predominantly invest in small and medium-sized companies across digital infrastructure and green energy infrastructure sectors in South Asia, Southeast Asia and South Korea, said a press release. 

Data showed that 41% of small or mid-cap companies in Emerging Markets currently have unmet financing needs.

This funding gap presently stands at around $5 trillion, which is notably 1.3 times the current level of available financing. In addition, nearly 53% of Asia and the Pacific with 4.3 billion people are offline and lack access to digital infrastructure and advancements.

The objective of the commitment from AIIB is to foster technology-enabled infrastructure innovation in developing Asian economies by mobilising private capital. It aims to foster the adoption and development of technologies in the above-mentioned sectors and contribute to mobilising capital from Korean institutional investors toward developing Asia, the press release added. 

"In addition to strengthening relationships with key institutions in the region, this project would be AIIB's first investment in a fund sponsored by a general partner in the Republic of Korea," said AIIB Director General, Banking Department (Region 1), Dongik Lee.

"We are excited about this opportunity and strongly believe the fund would take Korea's advanced technologies and make a positive impact on developing Asian economies," Lee added. 

The fund's investment pipelines align well with AIIB's thematic priorities and would lead to better value, quality, and gains in productivity and efficiency of existing infrastructure and support infrastructure sector to mitigate the risk of falling behind the technological revolution.