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Russia to join China-led development bank: official
by Staff Writers
Moscow (AFP) March 28, 2015


China's Xi attempts to reassure on Asian investment, economy
Beijing (AFP) March 28, 2015 - China's President Xi Jinping said Saturday that Beijing's new Asian investment schemes do not aim to displace existing regional programmes, after US scepticism about the Beijing-backed AIIB bank.

China is expanding its financial clout in Asia with the founding of a "Belt and Road" scheme to invest in regional transport links, as well as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a multinational lender that the United States perceives as a threat to the Washington-led World Bank.

Xi told a regional summit in southern China that the "Belt and Road" scheme had "no intention of replacing existing mechanisms or initiatives for regional cooperation", the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

"All countries along the routes in Asia, as well as China's friends and partners around the world" are invited to take part in the programme as well as the AIIB, Xi added, according to Xinhua.

But Xi repeated earlier calls for a "new security concept" in Asia, which has been seen by Western analysts as a push by China to dilute US influence in the Pacific.

The US has reportedly lobbied hard to prevent its Western allies from signing up to the AIIB -- apparently to little avail, with Germany, France and Britain all expressing an intention to join.

Xi, who leads China's ruling Communist party, also sought to reassure fears on China's economy, which grew at its slowest pace in nearly 25 years last year.

He said that observers should "not look at the growth rate only," when assessing economic health, arguing that economic efficiency was a more important measure.

China Construction Bank says net profits up 6 percent
Beijing (AFP) March 28, 2015 - China Construction Bank, the nation's second largest lender by assets, said its net profit rose six percent in 2014 from a year earlier, as interest income rose.

Net profit for 2014 was 227.83 billion yuan ($36.69 billion), up from 214.66 billion yuan in 2013, it said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday.

"Net interest yield rose steadily, driven by an increase in net interest income over the previous year," the bank said.

China's gross domestic product grew 7.4 percent last year, the slowest pace in nearly a quarter of a century.

Russia is to sign up to the Chinese-led development bank AIIB, first deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov said Saturday at an international forum in China, cited by Russian news agencies.

"I'd like to inform you that Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken the decision that Russia will participate in the capital of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)," Shuvalov said at China's Boao Forum, quoted by RIA Novosti state news agency.

The Beijing-backed AIIB, unveiled in October, is a multinational lender that the United States perceives as a threat to the Washington-led World Bank.

It has proved highly successful with countries that are US allies, however, with Britain, Germany, France, Italy and this week South Korea all saying they intend to join the $50 billion (46 billion euro) bank.

Russia has sought to align itself more closely with China in recent years and these efforts have intensified amid a freeze in relations with the Western powers, which have imposed harsh economic sanctions over Moscow's role in the Ukraine conflict.

"We are glad to have the opportunity to build up cooperation in the format of China and the Eurasian Economic Union," Shuvalov said, referring to a free trade union championed by Putin made up of Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Belarus, which came into force in January.

"We in Russia are sure that joint work in developing Eurasian partnership and the Silk Route economic belt will create further opportunities for the development of the countries of the Eurasian Union and China," he said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said this month that "practical cooperation between China and Russia is based on mutual need" and has "enormous internal impetus and room for expansion."

China is hungry for Russia's vast hydrocarbon resources, while Western sanctions have made seeking stable markets an urgent need for Putin, whose economy has been hit hard by the fall in prices for oil, a major source of revenue.

Both countries are permanent members of the UN Security Council, where they have in the past jointly used their veto power against Western-backed moves such as in the civil war in Syria.


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