Jin Liqun is China's candidate for AIIB president. (Photo : REUTERS)
Economist Jin Liqun is the hot favorite to become the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) inaugural chief.
The current secretary-general of the AIIB's Multilateral Interim Secretariat, Jin was hand-picked by China to set up the AIIB, which will finance infrastructure projects in Asia.
A native of Zhejiang Province, Jin holds a master's degree from Beijing Foreign Studies University and was a Hubert Humphrey Fellow at Boston University's Economics Graduate Program.
Jin was formerly China's executive director at the World Bank, director-general of the World Bank Department at China's Ministry of Finance and a vice minister of finance.
He joined the Asian Development Bank in Aug. 2003 as vice president of operations up until 2008.
Jin later served as chairman of supervisors of Central Huijin Investment and its parent firm, China Investment Corporation, where he had a vital role in the development of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds.
In May 2013, Jin was appointed chairman of China International Capital Corporation Limited, the country's first joint-venture investment bank with a foreign entity.
It has already been announced that AIIB's headquarters will be situated in Beijing's financial district.
As of the March 31 deadline, 46 nations have applied to be founding members of the AIIB.
Sources said Jin's methodology runs contrary to conventional Western thinking and wants the entity to have a non-resident board of directors that could allow it to function with less day-to-day and hands-on management than the World Bank board.
He is a staunch believer in management's accountability to government shareholders.
