On the Road: What President Zou Heard
When Zou Jiayi assumed the presidency of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in January 2026, she made an unusual choice for a leader of a major multilateral institution: before setting strategy, she went to listen. Over the following months, she visited 15 member economies across Asia, meeting heads of states, finance ministers and a wide range of partners and clients. She also saw firsthand the impact of AIIB’s work, riding rapid transit systems and walking hospital wards equipped with support from the bank.
The scale of the mission reflects the scale of what is at stake.
"The purpose was simple: listen," Zou says. "I wanted to hear directly from our members about their development priorities, and to see how AIIB-financed projects are working on the ground."
Two things came through clearly. The first was deep appreciation for AIIB's track record across its first decade. The second was more ambitious: a strong and consistent call to scale up, to do more, faster and more innovatively, as global development challenges intensify.
