“That growth trajectory will continue,” Kim-See Lim, the chief investment officer of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), said. luck on the sidelines of Forum Ekonomi Malaysia. “Asia has a very technologically savvy young population base and, with that, productivity and knowledge transfer will really increase.”

A native Malaysian, Lim is optimistic about his homeland’s economic prospects. Malaysia’s unemployment rate stands at 2.9%, while the ringgit has just hit a five-year high.

Last October, the The AIIB has signed cooperation agreements with four Malaysian banks—Maybank, CIMB, AmBank and BPMB—to mobilize $6 billion to finance green infrastructure projects across Southeast Asia. Lim called it “the first step towards supporting the economic growth of Malaysia and the surrounding region.”

Energy makes up a large part of ASEAN economies, with companies such as Thailand PTin Indonesia Pertaminaand the State Electricity Company (PLN) of Indonesia which sits in the top ten of luckThe Southeast Asia 500 ranking.

Developed in Asia, for Asia

The AIIB was established in 2015, in a China-led effort to promote sustainable economic growth and improve infrastructure connectivity in Asia. (Chinese president Xi Jinping proposed the initiative in 2013, during a state visit to Indonesia.)

“In 1980, China did not have any expressways, no electrified railways, no modern airports, nothing in terms of so-called modern infrastructure,” Jin Liqun, the founding president of the AIIB, said.elderly luck in an interview last year. “But in 1995, China’s economy began to improve. From 1995, other sectors – manufacturing, processing – mushroomed because of basic infrastructure.”

The AIIB bank boasts 111 countries as members, including other major economies such as India, France, Germany and the UK (The US and Japan refused to join)

Unlike other multilateral development banks such as the World Bank, the AIIB’s work is more tightly focused on infrastructure. The AIIB does not “prescribe” what its members should do, Lim said. “That’s what we’re really here for, to listen to the needs of countries and see how we can support them.”

However, despite its positioning as an alternative to the existing MDB, the AIIB is working closely with its partners in development finance. Since the establishment of the AIIB, Lim says they have developed more than 130 projects—and mobilized more than $32 billion in co-financing—with other peer MDBs.

The AIIB is investing in infrastructure throughout Southeast Asia, especially in the areas of transit and mobility. The bank is financing the construction of bridges and toll roads, as well as upgrading metro infrastructure in the Philippines, where cities such as Manila suffer from severe traffic congestion. The AIIB also provided more than $400 million in funding to expand Thailand’s U-Tapao International Airport, which serves neighboring tourist centers such as Bangkok and Pattaya.

On February 10, Singaporean infrastructure company Keppel announced that it received a total of $125 million in AIIB commitments for a private credit fund targeting sustainable infrastructure projects across the Asia-Pacific. The AIIB-Keppel partnership ultimately hopes to mobilize $1.5 billion in funding for projects undertaken by Keppel.

“ASEAN is the fifth largest economy in the world,” Lim said luck last week. “There’s power in those numbers. Whether it’s for trade, power, or just sharing knowledge, there’s power in that group.”