21 Asian countries sign MOU on establishing Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

Twenty-first Asian countries that are willing to join Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as founding members on Friday morning signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Establishing AIIB (MOU).

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with the representatives of the 21 countries later in the morning.

The 21 countries are Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

The MOU specifies that the authorized capital of AIIB is 100 billion U.S. dollars and the initial subscribed capital is expected to be around 50 billion dollars. The paid-in ratio will be 20 percent.

AIIB will be an inter-governmental regional development institution in Asia. As agreed, Beijing will be the host city for AIIB's headquarters.

It is expected that the Prospective Founding Members will complete the signing and ratification of the Articles of Agreement (AOA) in 2015 and AIIB will be formally established by the end of 2015.