Representatives of the 50 prospective founding members of the Asian Infrastructure InvestmentBank on Monday morning signed the bank's articles of agreement (AOA), laying the ground rulesfor officially inaugurating the multilateral lender.
The rest of the seven prospective founding members have not yet signed the agreement as theyare waiting for domestic approval.
The AOA, the bank's mini-constitution, underpins the fundamental principles for the establishmentand future operations of the AIIB. The signing wrapped up a six-month behind-the-scene intensenegotiation and paved the way for establishing the bank before the end of this year.
According to the AOA, China will contribute $29.78 billion of the bank's $100 billion capital base,becoming the largest shareholder within the bank with a 30.34 percent stake in AIIB. Under theformula that also factored in possible new members' share and prospective founding members'rights, China got 26.06 percent of the total votes.
Seventy-five percent of the shares are distributed among countries within the Asian region whilethe other 25 percent are assigned among countries beyond the region. As the bank expands itsmembership in the future, countries beyond the region can expand their share but the portioncannot be bigger than 30 percent.
The bank will be headquartered in Beijing, with possible regional centers in other countries. Theofficial working language is English.
There are some other innovation, such as the non-resident, non-paid board of directors. Publicprocurement of the AIIB will be open to all countries around the world, instead of within membercountries.
"The AIIB will adopt international good practices and embrace high standards, striving to build aprofessional, efficient and clean platform for infrastructure investment," Finance Minister LouJiwei said in an op-ed published in China Daily.
After signing the agreement, representatives of prospective founding members will bring theagreement back to their countries for legal adoption processes. The bank can be legally valid aslong as more than 10 countries, with their total subscribed capital no less than 50 percent of thetotal capital, get the charter approved by their legislatures.
