Brussels, 30/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - Last weekend, Denmark and the Netherlands officially announced their intention of becoming founder members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a project led by China.
“Since many Danish trade interests as well as development cooperation interests will be at stake in AIIB, there are many reasons to engage in and influence AIIB's investment decisions from its beginning”, Danish Minister for Trade Mogens Jensen stated in a press release. He described the establishment of the bank, which will have initial capital of $50 billion, as a “significant and exciting development”.
So far, nine EU countries have expressed their wishes to become founding members of the AIIB: Germany, Austria, Denmark, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The deadline for expressions of interest has been set for Tuesday 31 March. Other global economic heavyweights, such as Australia, Brazil, Russia and Switzerland, have also got behind the venture.
The United States is extremely critical of the creation of this bank, as it believes that it could overshadow existing organisations such as the World Bank, which it controls, and the Japanese-controlled Asian Development Bank. (Mathieu Bion)