Up to 21 countries including Kuwait, Oman and Qatar became founding members of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as they reached a milestone agreement for its structure on Friday, the state-run China Daily reported.
An inter-governmental memorandum of understanding was signed in Beijing, opening the way for the formal establishment of the China-led multinational financial body that will be tasked with providing funds for regional infrastructure projects, the newspaper said.
The 21 economies are Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
During a Southeast Asia visit last October, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward a proposal to establish the AIIB to promote connectivity and economic integration in Asia. Since that time, China has held five rounds of talks with interested countries on setting up the AIIB and achieving its reported capital target of USD 100 billion. As of Friday, Japan, Australia, South Korea and Indonesia will not take part in the AIIB.
China’s Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said in a Wednesday conference that the AIIB is an open organization in terms of admitting members, with a guiding principle that nations in the region come first.
“The AIIB has a different focus than established multilateral organizations such as World Bank and Asian Development Bank,” Lou was quoted as saying. But the minister added that the leaders of these groups have welcomed the establishment of the AIIB and will hopefully cooperate in certain projects.
The ADB has estimated that in the next decade Asian countries will need USD eight trillion in infrastructure investments to maintain the current economic growth rate.
Source : KUNA Kuwait News agency
