Malaysia Signs Non-Binding Multilateral MoU To Establish AIIB

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 24 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian government has signed a non-binding multilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) with 20 proposed founding countries to establish the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing, China on Friday. The Malaysian government was represented by the Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, who attended the 21st APEC Finance Ministers' Meeting from Oct 21-22, 2014. The proposed founding members include China, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. The AIIB is a proposed multilateral development bank to be created to provide funding for infrastructure development, with a proposed initial authorised capital of US$50 billion. About 20 per cent of the proposed initial authorised capital will be the paid-up capital. In a statement from the Ministry of Finance, Ahmad Husni said the infrastructure bank would utilise commercial funding from financial markets to raise the necessary resources to provide competitive loans to the member countries. The AIIB was targeted to accelerate the infrastructure development in sectors including energy and power, urban development and rural infrastructure, he added. The proposed infrastructure bank will focus more on financing physical infrastructure projects for economic growth as compared to other multilateral banks which focus on eradicating poverty. "The resources will be allocated based on three criteria, namely regional development impact, assisting the poor, and no fixed system based on shared allocation," said Ahmad Husni. --BERNAMA