SINGAPORE: The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), in which India is a founding member, today said it would be operational by the end of this year.
The 57-member bank said that the Articles of Agreement (AoA) for the AIIB have been finalized and should be ready for signing by the end of June.
This comes after the conclusion of the ‘5th Chief Negotiators’ Meeting on Establishing the AIIB’, which was held here from May 20-22.
The meeting was chaired by Shi Yaobin, Vice Minister of the Chinese Ministry of Finance and Permanent Chair of the Chief Negotiators’ Meeting, and Yee Ping Yi, Deputy Secretary of Singapore’s Ministry of Finance.
Representatives from the 57 prospective founding members of the AIIB and Jin Liqun, Secretary General of the Multilateral Interim Secretariat on Establishing the AIIB, also attended the meeting which concluded discussions for the AIIB, said the bank.
During the meeting, Jin reported the progress to date in setting up the AIIB, and chief negotiators also discussed the draft Environmental and Social Framework and draft Procurement Policy Framework, among other topics.
Chief negotiators have held five rounds of meetings since the signing of the memorandum of understanding for establishing the AIIB in Beijing in October, 2014, said the bank.
The AIIB, which will be headquartered in Beijing, is expected to be officially established by the end of 2015.
The bank is designed to finance infrastructure construction in the continent. It will have authorized capital of USD 100 billion and the initial subscribed capital is expected to be around USD 50 billion.
The meeting concluded a day after Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a USD 110 billion investment plan for infrastructure projects in Asia in an apparent move to counter the launch of the AIIB by rival China. Earlier, official media reports in Beijing said that China will be the largest shareholder in the AIIB followed by India and Russia.
“Based on the AIIB members’ GDP weight in the world economy, China will become the bank’s largest shareholder, followed by India and Russia,” Chen Fengying, a research fellow at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told state-run Global Times yesterday.
China is likely to have a 30.85 per cent share in the bank, followed by India with 10.4 per cent, the daily quoted media reports as saying.
“Whether measured by nominal GDP or the purchasing power parity-adjusted GDP, it makes sense for China to be the biggest capital contributor and the most influential decision maker among all the Asian members,” Ma said.
Based on the GDP and Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), China was expected to get the post of president followed India as one of the vice presidents.–PTI
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