DUSHANBE, October 30, 2014, Asia-Plus – Twenty-one Asian countries have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on establishing the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
The document was inked by the representatives from Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam in Beijing, China on October 24.
According to Xinhua, the memorandum specifies that the authorized capital of the AIIB is 100 billion U.S. dollars and the initial capital is expected to be around 50 billion dollars. The paid-in ratio will be 20 percent. As agreed, Beijing will be the host city for the AIIB”s headquarters.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is an international financial institution proposed by China. The purpose of the multilateral development bank is to provide finance to infrastructure projects in the Asia Pacific region.
AIIB is regarded by some experts as a rival for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which are reportedly dominated by developed countries like the United States and Japan.
The first news reports about the AIIB appeared in October 2013.
In June 2014 China proposed doubling the registered capital of the bank from $50 billion to $100 billion and invited India to participate in the founding the bank. A signing ceremony that was held in Beijing on October 24 formally recognized the establishment of the bank.
The next step is to negotiate the bank’s articles of agreement, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2015.
