what is the asian infrastructure investment bank aiib 
the asian infrastructure investment bank aiib is a multilateral development bank that provides financing for infrastructure projects in asia like other development banks its mission is to improve social and economic outcomes in its region asia and beyond it has 106 member countries and 100 billion of capitalization as of 2023 the aiib was proposed by chinese leader xi jinping to provide developing countries with an alternative to western lending institutions like the world bank and the international monetary fund it began operations in january 2016 