The Philippines said Wednesday Dec 30,2015 it will join the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, despite being engaged in a dispute with Beijing over its claims in the South China Sea.
In a statement, Philippines
Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said his country's infrastructure
financing needs would top $127.12 billion between 2010 and 2020, quoting
the ADB.
He said the AIIB
would "help close infrastructure financing gaps in many countries" and
may lead to "widening job and business growth opportunities" for
Filipinos.
"The Philippines
stands to gain from signing on as a founding member. We can look forward
to deepening our country's technical expertise in infrastructure as we
expand bankable projects," he added.
The Philippines would contribute $196 million to AIIB capital, he said.
AIIB is based in Beijing and currently has 57 members(37 regional and 20 non-regional Prospective Founding Members (PFM)) including Australia, Germany and Britain
As of 25 December 2015, 17 states (Australia, Austria, Brunei, China, Georgia, Germany, Jordan, Luxembourg, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea and the United Kingdom) together holding 50.1% of the initial subscriptions of Authorized Capital Stock, have deposited the instrument of ratification for the agreement, making them all founding members and bringing the Articles of Agreement, the bank's charter, into force. Russia followed, taking the amount of Authorized Capital Stock held by members of the bank to 56.8%
Viewed by some
as a rival to the World Bank and the Philippines-based Asian
Development Bank, the AIIB is expected to begin operation in 2016 with an opening ceremony scheduled for January 16-18,2016
The United States and Japan, respectively the world's largest and
third-largest economies and the principal shareholders in the ADB, have
both declined to join the AIIB, part of an initiative by China to expand
its financial clout in Asia
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