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AIIB Director General: Middle Corridor requires $28 billion over the next three years

Xiaohong Yang, Director General of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

19 June 2026 10:22 (UTC +04:00)

Approximately $28 billion will be needed over the next three years for the Middle Corridor to become fully operational. Therefore, infrastructure remains the number one priority, Xiaohong Yang, Director General of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), said during the session titled “Financing the Middle Corridor for Sustainable Transport and Trade,” organized within the framework of the Islamic Development Bank Annual Meetings held in Baku, APA-Economics reports.

According to her, the first priority is financing bankable projects: "The Middle Corridor needs approximately $28 billion over the next three years. Therefore, infrastructure remains the number one priority. The second priority is operational efficiency. Because in order to make the Middle Corridor attractive for investors and cargo carriers, the most important issue is for it to be reliable and predictable. While transportation used to take one month in the past, it now takes about 18 days. However, this is still high."

Xiaohong Yang also stated that more projects are needed for the Middle Corridor to function:

"This includes not only roads and railways, but also ships, fleets, ports, airports, operating systems and digital platforms. Multiple operators must work together along this corridor because the key characteristic of the Middle Corridor is its multimodal nature, meaning it is important not just to have one type of infrastructure, but for all systems to work together."

The AIIB representative also highly praised the modernization processes underway in Azerbaijan:

"I see major modernization efforts being carried out in Azerbaijan. During the past few days that I have been in the country, I held meetings with government institutions and state-owned enterprises and was very impressed. They have already begun working on operational efficiency, reliability and predictability. I would also like to emphasize that, as Mr. Rahman Hummatov noted, Azerbaijan plays an important role, particularly in ensuring investments, operational efficiency and PPPs along the Middle Corridor."

AIIB Xiaohong Yang Middle Corridor Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Azerbaijan infrastructure transport logistics investment operational efficiency PPP public-private partnership Islamic Development Bank IsDB Annual Meetings Baku trade corridor connectivity railways ports digital platforms multimodal transport cargo transportation regional integration