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The Chinese-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is by no means "China's Marshall Plan", labelled by some Western media, as it is not a tool for confrontation or control but for the pursuit of common and sustainable development.
Designed to focus on financing projects in infrastructure and other public sectors in the region, the AIIB is expected to benefit all parties involved.
For China, "the bank creates an opportunity for Chinese businesses to invest and it also creates demand for Chinese products," said Vasily Mikheyev, deputy director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations at Russian Academy of Sciences.
China has reaped enormous benefits from its integration with the global economy over the past decades and would like to help fund others' development with no political strings attached.
Experts say that this makes it essentially different from the Marshall Plan, which effectively helped the United States strengthen its grip on Europe and contain Soviet influence after World War II.
China proposed to establish "a multilateral development bank of the 21st century that is professional, efficient and clean" as it wanted to help fill the huge gap in the infrastructure funding in Asia.
The continent needs some 800 billion U.S. dollars per year to fund infrastructure projects over the coming years, but the existing institutions can only provide a fraction of this amount.
Asian countries, especially the developing economies, pin much hope on the project.
"If you give financial support to countries in need of infrastructure development, (you) will increase connectivity and reduce unnecessary costs," said Wisudhi Srisuphan, deputy finance minister of Thailand. "Developed economies in AIIB's diverse grouping expect to benefit from the bank, too."
Peter Drysdale, emeritus professor of economics at Australian National University, said it is "a bold initiative in which partners like Australia have a huge stake in China's success."
In the eyes of British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, the AIIB allows his country "to support Asia's economic development and to share our experience of international financial institution regulation in developing the governance model for the AIIB."
Britain was the first European country to announce its intention to join the bank last year.
Experts believe the AIIB will well complement existing multilateral international institutions like the World Bank. The Asian Development Bank has said it is exploring the possibility of jointly co-financing projects with the newly-established bank.
The AIIB has another benefit, that is to spur global governance reforms. U.S. lawmakers recently stopped its foot-dragging in approving a package deal for reforming the International Monetary Fund. The AIIB is believed to have played an accelerating role.
"It's the right initiative at the right time. It will be under intense scrutiny but that's like to make it a better institution," Drysdale said.
