China-led bank 'shouldn't be hostage to history': expert

The proposed Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank should not be constrained by past history and should be creative in its structure, governance and lending practice, said participants at a panel discussion during the Boao Forum for Asia. Jenny Shipley, former prime minister of New Zealand, said New Zealand, the first developed nation to join the AIIB as a founding member, hopes to be involved in drafting the rules of the new multilateral bank.

"I hope that the bank would face up to the future and not be excessively focused on what happened in the past," Shipley said.

The bank could be innovative in how it works with other multilateral financial institutions, how the board is constituted and how loans are made, she said. For example, board members are not necessarily to be residency board members, as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank do.

Shaukat Aziz, former prime minister of Pakistan, agreed, saying the AIIB is starting from "ground zero" and it shoudn't be "a hostage to history".

Li Ruogu, former chairman of the Export-Import Bank of China, said he does not think the current practices by IMF and WB are so called "best practices" that should be copied by AIIB.

"There is a lot to learn from those practices. But it doesn't means there is no room to improve," he said.