Arun Jaitley to visit China this month to attend AIIB meeting

This will be his first visit to China after he took over as Finance Minister

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will undertake his maiden visit to China later this month during which he will attend the first annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and address Chinese investors to scout for investments.

Jaitley will attend the first meeting of the Board of Governors of the China-sponsored AIIB to be held here on June 25-26, official sources told PTI.

This will be Jaitley's first visit to China after he took over as Finance Minister.

Indian officials said his programme is still being finalised. India is among the 57 founding member countries which have joined the Beijing-headquartered bank.

The bank has started its operations from early this year.

India, which is the second largest shareholder after China, has been elected to the 12-member board of governors.

With authorised capital of $100 billion and subscribed capital of $50 billion, AIIB plans to invest in sectors including energy, transportation, urban construction and logistics as well as education and healthcare.

The World Bank said in a statement recently that that the AIIB expects to approve about $1.2 billion in financing this year.

Projects jointly financed by the World Bank accounts for a sizeable share. The projects may be announced during the first governors meeting. China is the largest shareholder with 26.06% voting shares.

India is the second largest shareholder with 7.5% followed by Russia 5.93% and Germany with 4.5%. India's total capital subscription amounts to $8.37 billion.

Besides attending the AIIB meeting, Jaitley will address a meeting of Chinese investors to apprise them about investment opportunities in India.

Officials say Chinese investments roughly amounted to $2 billion so far and expected to pick up pace this year.

During his visit to India in 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised $20 billion investments from China in the next five years.

India is also pressing China to step up investments to address the mounting trade deficit which amounted to $48 billion last year in about $70 billion bilateral trade.

Ahead of Jaitley's visit, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will make his second visit to China to mobilise investments.

He will be addressing investors meetings in Beijing and Guangzhou, officials here said.