US Welcome Anytime To Join New China-Led Bank, Official Pledges To Fend Off Graft, Won't Be Run Only By Chinese

The United States is welcome anytime should it decide to join the infrastructure development bank created by China, the chief of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, or AIIB, said. Jin Liqun made the remark after divulging the bank’s founding members could be "short of 60." On Saturday, Brazil, Georgia, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands became the latest additions to the rostrum of founding members.

The U.S. had lobbied its allies to reject the China-led bank, claiming it will be used by the country to overpower the Big Three Banks – the ADB, IMF and WB. It claimed the bank is China’s tool to destroy the balance of the world order. But it had apparently lost the battle when staunch allies including Australia, the UK and Germany decided to join and become founding members of the China-led bank.

Jin said the U.S. is very much “welcome to the kitchen to work with us,” noting whatever possible contributions of knowledge from the U.S. will greatly help the bank. “China itself has benefited enormously from contributions by the WB and ADB,” Jin said at a forum in Singapore. It’s about time China contributes more to the region, and hopefully to other regions, he added.

Jin said the bank will set parameters and strive to be graft-free as well as transparent in all its dealings and transactions. He said a “core group of professionals” will run the bank, where the top management will be appointed based on ability, not political connections. "AIIB is a bank, not a political organisation or political alliance. This guaranteed that it would be impossible to operate it in an untransparent way," he said. Some 52 countries, including Russia, submitted applications to join the AIIB as founding members. The final list will be announced April 15. The bank is expected to commence operations by yearend and will station its headquarters in Beijing. Only the U.S. and Japan were the notable non-applicants.

Based on GDP, the bank’s biggest shareholder is China. But Jin said this will diminish as new members join in.

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