Finance Minister Edward Scicluna today attended the inaugural ceremony of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing, and signed the Articles of Agreement that establish the bank as an international organisation.

Malta and 56 other countries, including a number of EU member states such as the UK, France, Italy and Germany, have become prospective founding members of this new multilateral development bank that will provide financial support for infrastructure development and regional connectivity in Asia. It will have an authorised capital of 100 billion US dollars and the initial subscribed capital is expected to be around 50 billion dollars.

The purpose of the Bank is to foster sustainable economic development, create wealth and improve infrastructure connectivity in Asia by investing in infrastructure and other productive sectors; and to promote regional cooperation and partnership in addressing development challenges by working in close collaboration with other multilateral and bilateral development institutions.

AIIB will be financing member countries or agencies, entities or enterprises in member territories as well as international or regional agencies or entities concerned with the economic development in Asia. The Bank could also be authorised to provide financing to recipients located outside Asia that contribute to the economic development of the region.

The bank, which will be headquartered in Beijing, is expected to be officially established at the end of 2015, after the agreement signed this morning has been legally adopted by the individual founding member states.

Following the signing ceremony, Minister Scicluna and other Finance Ministers from prospective AIIB founding Member States met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.