The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved the membership of Argentina, Madagascar and Tonga.
The AIIB’s board of Governors adopted resolutions approving the three applicants at the second annual meeting in South Korea’s southern resort island of Jeju.
The three prospective members will officially join AIIB once they complete the required domestic processes and deposit the first installment of capital with the Bank. The shares allocated to the new prospective members come from the Bank’s existing pool of unallocated shares.
Since launching only 18 months ago, the Bank has welcomed 23 new members from around the world.
At its launch in January 2016, there were 57 signatories to AIIB’s Articles of Agreement, and in March and May 2017, the Bank announced the approval of another 20 prospective members, who are currently in the process of finalizing their membership. The Bank expects to continue welcoming new members later this year.
AIIB is a new multilateral financial institution founded to bring countries together to address the daunting infrastructure needs across Asia.
Headquartered in Beijing, AIIB’s mission is to improve economic and social development in Asia by investing in high quality, financially viable and environmentally friendly infrastructure projects.