BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- China upholds an open and inclusive
attitude in the building and operation of the Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank (AIIB), a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on
Monday.
"China welcomes interested countries to join the bank," spokesperson
Hong Lei said at a routine press conference.
Hong made the remarks when asked whether China would still be
willing
to cooperate with the U.S. on the AIIB since the U.S. has been
urging
its allies not to join the bank.
The China-proposed AIIB, with an expected initial subscribed capital
of 50 billion U.S. dollars, will be an international financial
institution
to fund infrastructure projects in Asia. It is expected to
be formally
established by the end of 2015.
China proposed the AIIB in order to meet the huge funding demand
for
Asia infrastructure, said Jin Liqun, secretary general of the interim
multilateral secretariat of the AIIB.
The U.S. President Barack Obama's
administration is proposing a
formal partnership between the AIIB and
Western development
institutions like the World Bank, the Wall Street
Journal reported
on Sunday.
Hong said the U.S. shift in tone shows the AIIB's mission of funding
infrastructure projects in Asian countries has gained wide recognition.
The AIIB will draw upon good practices of existing multilateral
development banks (MDBs) and set up high-standard and feasible
safeguard
policies, said Hong.
Twenty-one countries including China, India and Singapore signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) last October in Beijing to
build the
bank, to improve lagging infrastructure in emerging Asian
economies.
The bank has had 27 prospective founding members. Britain, France,
Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Switzerland have recently applied
to jointhe AIIB as founding members.
Jin expected the number of prospective members to reach 35 by the
end of this month, when applications are due.
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