Pakistan's Federal Minister of Finance Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar arrived in Beijing on Jan 15 to attend meetings with banking and financing institutions, particularly the inaugural meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to be held over the weekend.

Talking to Chinese media, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that initially there was skepticism about AIIB from some countries, about its role, yet Pakistan believed that the AIIB would play a complementary role and the AIIB is now a reality.

He said that Pakistan had been a great supporter of the idea of AIIB right from the beginning and that it will play a complementary role. This region needs roughly seventy percent of the world’s global financing for infrastructure development. Keeping in view the appetite and demand for infrastructure development in this region, AIIB's potential to bridge the need and supply gap of funds needed for infrastructure development in this region is tremendous.