Indonesia calls for new financial order, as AIIB gains ground
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Indonesia's president on Wednesday called for a new global financial order to replace "obsolete" institutions at a summit of Asian and African leaders, as support grows for a new Beijing-backed regional development bank.
"The view which says that global economic problems can only be solved by the World Bank, the IMF, the ADB, is an obsolete view that needs discarding," Joko Widodo told delegates, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the start of the two-day summit in Jakarta.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are part of the Bretton Woods system, established during World War II, while the Asian Development Bank is a Japan-led institution modelled on the World Bank.
He did not mention the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) by name, but called for "reform of the global financial architecture to get rid of the domination of a group of countries over other countries".
During a visit to China last month, Widodo said he firmly supported the bank.
Robert Mugabe, the controversial Zimbabwean president, echoed his call: "African and Asian countries are a formidable force... yet that numerical strength counts for little when it comes to the running and control of the multilateral system."
Also at the gathering, which commemorates a key conference 60 years ago that forged a common identity for states emerging from colonial rule, was Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe -- key US ally Tokyo has not signed up for the bank.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia's biggest economy, has signed up as one of the founding members of the $50 billion, Beijing-backed AIIB.
China has scored a coup by enticing scores of countries to join despite Washington initially opposing its allies becoming members.
The two-day summit in Jakarta is commemorating a 1955 conference in the city of Bandung on Java island that laid the foundations for the Cold War-era Non-Aligned Movement.
