13 new members join China’s AIIB, including HK

BEIJING — The China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) yesterday approved 13 new applicants to join the bank, including Hong Kong, bringing its total membership to 70.

This is the first time AIIB has welcomed new members to the bank since its inception, the multilateral financial institution said in a statement on its website.

“The interest in joining the AIIB from around the world affirms the rapid progress we have made to establish the bank as an international institution,” the bank’s president, Mr Jin Liqun, said in the statement.

“I am very proud that the AIIB now has members from almost every continent, and we anticipate further applications being considered by our board of governors later this year.”

Other approved applicants include eight non-Asian countries — Canada, Belgium, Ethiopia, Hungary, Ireland, Peru, Republic of Sudan and Venezuela — and four regional members — Afghanistan, Armenia, Fiji and Timor Leste. They will officially join the AIIB after making their first deposit of capital and finishing required domestic processes.

Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo Po welcomed the approval, but called on the city state’s finance committee to hasten its consent for the required processes.Legislative council member Kenneth Leung Lai Cheong suggested that the city’s administrators take a more proactive role to help Hong Kong companies take advantage of the opportunities created by joining the bank, including setting up an office to handle issues linked to the AIIB.

Professor Lau Siu Kai, vice-president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, said Beijing has actively supported Hong Kong’s efforts to join the bank.

“Hong Kong is already an established international financial centre, and it can play a role for the countries along the One Belt, One Road that other mainland cities cannot replace,” he said, referring to China’s initiative to expand its trade and commercial links in Asia and into Europe.

“Of course, Hong Kong doesn’t want to miss the train. All the major countries of the world have already joined, with the exception of the United States (US) and Japan.” The US and Japan — the world’s largest and third-largest economies respectively — notably declined to join the bank.

The Beijing-headquartered AIIB, which began operations earlier last year, has been seen by some as a rival to the World Bank and the Philippines-based Asian Development Bank (ADB), which was founded in 1966.

It was initially opposed by the US, but attracted many American allies including Britain, Germany, Australia and South Korea as founding members. Critics had feared that the bank would set low standards for projects, and also undermine the principles of social, environmental and economic sustainability adhered to by the World Bank as well as other multilateral development finance institutions.

In June, the AIIB approved its first four loans, which totalled over half a billion dollars and were financed jointly with the ADB as well as the World Bank. The loans went to projects in Pakistan, Indonesia, Tajikistan and Bangladesh. AGENCIES