Kazi Zahidul Hasan :Bangladesh will sign the Articles of Agreement on Monday to become a member of the proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) officially, sources said. State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan will sign the deal on behalf of Bangladesh.Proposed by the Chinese government in 2013, the AIIB has already drawn 57 prospective founding members from all over the world, including Western economic powers Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom.Like Bangladesh, representatives of these countries will also sign the Articles of Agreement (AA) on behalf of their respective countries the same day that would make them partners of the proposed development bank.Earlier in October last year, Bangladesh signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to become a founding member of the AIIB which is seen to be the rival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The $130 billion AIIB, which will support infrastructure development in the lower and the middle-income Asian countries, earlier received enthusiastic support from these nations.The new multilateral development bank will raise a $50 billion initial capital from the members’ contribution.Officials said that Bangladesh would be required to contribute initially $132.1 million out of total $660.5 million to become member of the AIIB.The amount will have to be paid in five equal instalments in five years from January 2016.China said that 75 per cent of shares in the bank would be allocated to Asian members and 25 per cent to non-Asian members.AIIB is likely to start its operation in next January and its headquarters will be in Beijing.”Once the bank becomes functional, Bangladesh will apply for project loans and technical assistance from it,” an official of the Economic Relations Division (ERD) told The New Nation on Friday. He said that the interest rate of the AIIB would be more competitive than that of IMF, WB and the ADB, with similar terms and conditions.”The new bank will create massive opportunity to finance enormous infrastructure required for Bangladesh. The country now heavily depends on WB, IMF and ADB in taking project finance and loans even stringent conditions,” he noted.The official further said that launching of a new development bank would help us to diversify Bangladesh’s funding source for development projects. “Bangladesh will seek loans from the AIIB to implement its big infrastructure projects,” he added.China with 29.8 per cent shares will be AIIB’s largest shareholder followed by India (8.4 per cent), Russia (6.5 per cent), Germany (4.5 per cent) and South Korea (3.7 per cent). Share of the member countries has been fixed as per the size of their gross domestic product (GDP). Bangladesh’s share will most likely be 0.6729 per cent, said the ERD official.
