AIIB head fields questions from news executives

June Wong Har Leng, chief operating officer for content development, The Star Media Group

What is the responsibility of member countries?

First of all, I want to take issue with you when you say I pick the rosy pictures. I never pick the rosy pictures, I always pick the realistic pictures.... Certainly my picture involves lots of aspirations on what we aim to achieve. This is not my aspiration; it is the aspiration of the people of all these countries. So let's be realistic.

We cannot achieve all these objectives over a really short period of time, but I think we should always aim at all these grand programs, which would benefit all of the people of all the member countries. New members or existing members certainly will place high expectations on this bank.

They certainly try, at least for many developing countries, to get as many resources as possible from this bank. They would like to have as many projects as possible. But we cannot, I think, meet all of their expectations. We must achieve counterbalance and regional balance. Sometimes we have to decline ... because we believe some other projects are more important from the regional perspective. ... Probably, the response from other institutions would be the same. If your project does not measure up to their high standard for environmental protection they cannot do it.