China has formally invited Bangladesh to join its initiative to establish the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as a founder-member, sources said.
The bank, with US$100 billion as its capital, is scheduled to make its debut by the end of this year aiming to finance key infrastructure projects in Asian countries, they added.
"China has invited Bangladesh to join the preparatory works for establishment of the AIIB as a founding member, and work together with the country to build the AIIB into a platform of mutual benefits," a Chinese embassy official in Dhaka recently wrote to the Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs here.
The letter also said the prospective founding members of the AIIB will sign an inter-governmental memorandum of understanding (MoU) for establishing the bank this autumn.
The Chinese government also wrote details about the key features of the AIIB and sent the proposed MoU to Bangladesh for consideration.
Sources said the Chinese Finance Ministry also invited its Bangladesh counterpart to send a high-level delegation to China for further consultations. The Chinese ministry also said it is ready to send a delegation to Bangladesh, if necessary, to discuss the issue in details.
When contacted, Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahmed acknowledged receiving the Chinese invitation to join the initiative.
"Yes, I have seen the letter. But we are yet to have discussion among us to take a decision in this regard," he told the FE Friday over phone.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang during their recent visits to South East Asian countries formally announced their initiative of establishing the AIIB in order to support infrastructure construction and promote regional development and cooperation among the Asian nations.
The letter mentioned that their initiative has received positive responses from several countries.
China announced that it alone would contribute $50 billion for formation of the bank and the other member-countries will provide the rest.
Last week, the world's five emerging economies--- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) --- reached an agreement to establish the development bank headquartered in Shanghai.
The bank, named New Development Bank (NDB), aims at easing financing constraints faced by the BRICS nations and other developing countries to address infrastructure gaps and sustainable development needs.
Talking to the FE Friday, former Governor of Bangladesh Bank Dr Salehuddin Ahmed welcomed the initiative to establish the regional bank. "Theoretically, it's a good initiative. Because, small countries like Bangladesh do not get importance in the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank when they need money," he said.
Dr Ahmed, however, said some regional initiatives like SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) and BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) are not much successful, as expected.
"So, we have to take into consideration various aspects before joining the initiative," he said.
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