Australia considers joining China-proposed AIIB
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E-mail CRI, March 13, 2015
Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey said on Friday that Australia will consider joining the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a day after Britain applied to join the China-proposed bank as a founding member.
"This is something that will obviously be taken into account by the government over the next few weeks as we continue our dialogue with those people behind the bank."
Australia turned down the invitation by China to become one of the founding members of the AIIB, saying that Australia would like to see more transparency in the governance of the bank.
However Hockey told reporters in Sydney that AIIB governance has improved.
"Quite obviously China has improved the governance structure it is proposing for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank," Hockey said.
On Thursday, Britain's finance ministry said the country intends to join the AIIB as a founding member.
In doing so, Britain is the first major Western country to apply to become a member of the bank, which will be formally established by the end of 2015.
A fully operational AIIB will support "access to finance" for infrastructure projects across Asia, using a variety of support measures -- including loans, equity investments, and guarantees -- to boost investment across a range of sectors like transportation, energy, telecommunication, agriculture and urban development, the Treasury said in a statement.
In response, the Chinese Ministry of Finance said China welcomed Britain's decision, adding that it expects the European country to formally become a prospective founding member by the end of March if all goes well.
The AIIB will be an international financial institution that will provide support to infrastructure projects in Asia.
Twenty-one countries including China, India and Singapore signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) last October in Beijing to build the bank. Other countries, including Indonesia and New Zealand, soon followed.
Earlier this month, China's Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said 27 countries had applied to jointly build the bank as founding members.
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