The University of Luxembourg on 14 March welcomed representative of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) ahead of the latter’s first ever Annual Meeting held outside of Asia in July 2019.
Around 1,500 delegates are expected to descend upon Luxembourg for the Annual Meeting later this year. A preliminary visit to Luxembourg by the bank’s directorate was an opportunity to connect with academics from the Luxembourg School of Finance (LSF) as well as offering students the opportunity to take part in a special event on infrastructure and digitalisation.
The round-table “Infrastructures for a Digital World” included Pierre Gramegna (Luxembourg Minister of Finance), Sir Danny Alexander (Vice-President and Corporate Secretary, AIIB), Nasir Zubaira (CEO, Luxembourg House of Financial Technology) as well as several Uni.lu academics. The panel was moderated by Prof. Ulf von Lilienfeld-Toal, Head of the Luxembourg School of Finance.
It addressed the role development banks in the financing of digital infrastructure as well as the opportunities presented by public-private partnerships and the importance of government policy in this process. Panellists also discussed the importance of digital infrastructure for research and learning.
The afternoon discussion with students and members of the University community was followed up in the evening by a discussion hosted by Luxembourg for Finance (LFF). Speaking to the financial centre audience of over 150 invited guests, the session included Mr. Gramegna, Sir Danny Alexander, Nicolas Mackel (LFF), Najeeb Haider (AIIB), Niccolo Polli (HSBC Luxembourg), Pilar Solano (EIB) and Rosa Villalobos (Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets).
The panel, which explored how infrastructure can be developed into a mainstream asset class, was moderated by Prof. Roman Kräussl (LSF) who specialises in this field. His research aims to deliver empirical evidence on the return on investment for institutional investors, a field which remains under-researched.
Luxembourg was the first non-Asian country to join AIIB, which currently counts 93 members.
Photos © Luxembourg for Finance