The Asia-Africa Summit has been taking place in Jakarta over the past few days, with government officials from over 100 countries taking part. High-level dignitaries attending the event have included Chinese President Xi Jinping, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and Indian Minister Sushma Swaraj, as well as heavy hitters from the smaller nations of both regions.

Themed “The Realization of the Asia-Africa Partnership for Progress”, calls were made to push for reform of the global economic architecture, this included implied criticism of the World Bank, IMF and Asian Development Bank, with suggestions that they had done little to deal with issues both in Asia and certainly in Africa. Noting that China’s weight in the IMF was the same as a medium-sized European country, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee stated that such institutions no longer reflected the true world order and welcomed China’s recent plans for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Source: Asean Briefing

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