China has invited Japan to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a brainchild of the Communist nation for which 27 countries including India have signed up to be its founding members.
The chance to be an AIIB founding member is available for all Asian countries including Japan by March 31, Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei told a media briefing here today.
Japanese government has been updated with the result of talks among the bank’s current founding members, Lou said.
“They told us they are considering. Whether Japan will join, we do not know. It is Japan’s own decision,” he said.
Japan, Australia and South Korea have not joined the AIIB and the US has expressed reservations over its transparency.
India has joined the initiative to set up the Bank floated last year by China to step financing of infrastructure projects in the region.
The bank to be headquartered in Beijing is expected to be operational this year.
The authorised capital of AIIB is $ 100 billion and the initial subscribed capital is expected to be around $ 50 billion. The paid-in ratio will be 20 per cent, according to the MOU.
The bank together with BRICS Development Bank and $ 40 billion Silk Road development fund established by China was expected to fund large number of infrastructure projects in the region.
Lou said some European countries, including major ones, have expressed the intention to join it.
But current founding members agree that AIIB will consider Asian countries first and the membership of countries outside the region will be the next step, he said.
Currently 27 countries have confirmed to join AIIB, an initiative proposed by China.
Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao told media Tuesday that the bank will be set up within 2015.
“It is hard to predict how many countries will join in the future. It is not up to China but all founding members,” Lou said.
Without naming any country, Lou said some countries wanted to get privileges, but such issues have to be discussed and finalised by all the founding members.