The bank is building a pooled-capital platform to draw insurers, pension funds and other investors into Asia’s infrastructure debt
2-MIN READ2-MINDaisy WuPublished: 11:00am, 10 Sep 2026The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is developing a new platform to pool capital from institutional investors, aiming to roughly quadruple the private capital it mobilises for infrastructure projects across Asia, according to a senior officer.The mechanism will allow insurers, pension funds, and other institutional investors to co-invest in infrastructure debt alongside the bank across its 111 member countries on a programmatic basis, rather than negotiating deal by deal.Kim-See Lim, AIIB’s chief investment officer, described the initiative as being at a very early stage, with further details expected within six to nine months. She spoke to the South China Morning Post following a joint private capital mobilisation conference co-hosted by the AIIB and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority on Tuesday.
The Beijing-headquartered multilateral bank has mobilised around US$17.5 billion in private capital, both directly and indirectly, from its inception through the end of 2025 – a base Lim wants to grow far faster through the new platform.
“It needs to be done faster and ... on a greater scale,” she said. “What we will do is reach out to a group of like-minded investors to try to come up with a set of common terms on how we can invest in infrastructure as an asset class together.”
The need is there, and the opportunity is there. We just need to make these projects happen so investors will come inKim-See Lim, AIIBThe push comes as Asia’s infrastructure shortfall remains stark. The Asian Development Bank in a 2017 report estimated that the region required US$1.7 trillion in annual infrastructure investment through 2030, with Lim pointing to a persistent shortfall of up to US$700 billion a year.
