To some extent, the structures of the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund are obsolete: they can no longer meet the needs of new emerging economies and don’t reflect today’s global economy. The AIIB could serve to invigorate the other banks to become more competitive and efficient.

China’s investment in Central Asian energy and transportation is impressively promoting regional integration. There is still a degree of fear and caution from Central Asian leadership due to incomprehension of Beijing’s foreign policy goals, a historical legacy of confrontation, and the sensitivity of Moscow to recognize the importance of Beijing’s role.

The 1955 conference reshaped the modern world order, and its legacy is rich with lessons that apply to today’s political challenges and pursuit of prosperity.

Despite official American and Japanese opposition, 57 countries have opted to be among the founding members of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Regardless of what naysayers believe, this remarkable turn of events can only benefit global economic governance.

The Philippines is seeing a year of impressive economic growth (at 6.3%) despite the lacking foreign direct investment due to woeful infrastructure constraints. The AIIB can be an additional source of funding for local infrastructure projects. Political disputes surrounding the China Sea disputes were not enough to trump the economic importance of this cooperation.

A more dynamic and flexible AIIB has the chance to develop and showcase strong, new and effective accountability mechanisms supported by all shareholders. Here though, China too must learn from and improve upon its own past practices if it is to prove the skeptics wrong.

To offset weaker export numbers and a reliance on foreign reserves, China needs a growth model that emphases quality goods and innovation-led growth. A twenty-first century economic model of innovation particularly requires the support of a highly efficient financial system, a sound legal system of intellectual property protection, fair tax incentives, and better entrepreneurial education.

The Chinese economy is simply too big to remain tied to the once useful monetary anchor of the renminbi–U.S. dollar peg. It is time to let it go. In the short term, it would help deliver a warranted Chinese monetary easing by helping to stabilise the effective exchange rate and to facilitate an orderly unwinding of the Chinese corporate carry trade.

Chiefs of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund overtly expressed their support and intention for cooperation for the AIIB, for its possibility of fast and sustainable development in new Asian economies. This hasn’t developed with a share of U.S. and Japanese controversy over supposed veto ability, lack of “high standards,” the eclectic membership, and the notion that the U.S. “won” and China “lost.”

The rapidly swelling local government debt in China over the past few years are seen by many as a trigger to a credit bubble, or even a full-blown financial crisis. Budget reform, the first critical reform among over 330 reform proposals of the Xi administration, has kicked off, laying the foundation for a more balanced and transparent government budget and financing structure. Yifan Hu outlines the areas needed for both short and long term structural changes.