On the occasion of the opening of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing yesterday, Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Takehiko Nakao congratulate the AIIB founding members, its first president Jin Liqun and the staff members of AIIB Multilateral Secretariat. “ADB will cooperate closely with AIIB in supporting the development of the Asia Pacific region, drawing on ADB’s 50 years of experience and expertise and with extensive network of 31 field offices in developing member countries,” Nakao said in a statement issued from the bank’s headquarters in Manila. Nakao met with Jin twice last year -- first in Baku in May during the ADB’s Annual Meeting and the second in Beijing in September. They agreed to the need to fill large infrastructure gap in the Asia and Pacific region, the critical role of infrastructure in supporting sustainable development and poverty reduction, and the importance of strong policies to ensure the environmental and social sustainability of projects, according to the statement. ADB has been assisting the Multilateral Secretariat throu­ghout last year to prepare the new institution’s various operational policies such as guidelines for environmental and social safeguard and for procurement. ADB has started identifying potential co-financing projects with AIIB in areas such as transport, renewable energy, urban and water.