A senior official of China's central bank said Sunday that the decision to inject capital into the Silk Road Fund stemmed from an enormous funding demand.

The fund has a large reserve of projects in waiting, and the demand for funds will be greater in the future, said Yi Gang, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China.

President Xi Jinping said earlier Sunday that China will contribute an additional 100 billion yuan (about 14.5 billion U.S. dollars) to the Silk Road Fund as he addressed the opening of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

The capital boost will help the fund to make the most of its advantages of flexibility and high efficiency, Yi told Xinhua.

More funding will also help the fund to play its leveraging role, Yi said.

Designed to finance the Belt and Road Initiative, the Silk Road Fund was founded in December 2014 and is jointly backed by China's foreign exchange reserves, the China Investment Corp., the Export-Import Bank of China and China Development Bank.