"with the aim of reducing" vs "with the aim to reduce"

[iconstudent448]

As per the SC guide "with the aim to " is incorrect vs "with the aim of reducing"

Correct sentence: We adopted new procedures with the aim of reducing theft.
Incorrect sentence: We adopted new procedures with the aim to reduce theft.

As per my understanding, the reason for this is that the word "aim" has been used as a noun in the above(correct) sentence and therefore we chose to use aim of instead of aim to.

I think aim to would be correct when aim is used as a verb e.g. We adopted new policies aimed at reducing theft.

Please let me know whether this is correct.

[tim]

this is an idiom. you just have to memorize how the GMAT wants you to answer questions with this construction..

[Jov]

We adopted new procedures aimed at reducing theft.
We adopted new procedures with the aim of reducing theft.

I understand that they both are correct.Is there any difference in the meaning of both these sentences?

For me it seems that the first sentence:
we adopted new procedures and all these new procedures are aimed at reducing theft.

We adopted new procedures. Also, we have aim of reducing theft. But we don't know whether these procedures are aimed at reducing theft or not.

Please let me know if my thinking is right or not. If it is not, then please let me know the difference between these two in terms of meaning.

Thanks,
Jov

[RonPurewal]

That's pretty much the idea.

Such subtle differences won't be tested on this exam. If meaning issues exist, they'll be significant differences.