The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved $20 million in financing for the Cook Islands — one of the world’s most tourism-driven economies — to provide social and economic assistance to mitigate economic disruption and support economic resilience.
The loan is AIIB’s first project in the Cook Islands and is funded by AIIB’s COVID-19 crisis recovery facility (CRF). This project is co-financed with the Asian Development Bank as part of the Cook Islands’ COVID-19 Active Response and Economic Support Program.
Tourism-dependent countries have been particularly hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, as their economies have been adversely affected by global travel restrictions. Tourism revenues in the Cook Islands exceed 60 percent of GDP. Related sectors accounted for 36.7 percent of the total workforce in 2016, or around half of all private-sector employment. The pandemic’s impact on the travel industry and its vast value chain has posed a signif
