BD needs to pay $100m to get AIIB stake

Bangladesh will have to pay nearly US$100 million to get a stake in the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as a founder-member, officials have said.
"So far, 22 countries have joined hands in establishing the bank. We may need to pay around US$100 million to get its shares," additional secretary of Economic Relations Division (ERD) Asif-uz-Zaman told the FE.  
He said the amount has to be paid in three to four years. "We are planning to get more shares to have more voice in the bank board."
On October 24, Bangladesh and 21 other Asian countries signed an inter-governmental Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Beijing aiming to establish the bank, which is being considered as a new rival to West-dominated multilateral lenders including the World Bank.
The authorities of the proposed bank will now circulate the draft of Articles of Agreement which will be finalised in next six months.
The ERD recently formed a steering committee, headed by its additional secretary (ERD) Asif-uz-Zaman, to take part in negotiations locally and abroad on draft Articles of Agreement and to examine the MoU signed earlier.
Terming Bangladesh's decision to join the AIIB as a good one, Mr Zaman said the bank will make funds available for infrastructural development which Bangladesh seriously needs.
He said the AIIB has some clear differences with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. He said one shareholding country will have one vote; none will have veto power and no country will be able to make influence in decision-making like the other multilateral lenders.
Mr Zaman said several formulas including size of gross domestic product on per capita and purchasing power parity (PPP), and size of population are under study in awarding shares of the bank among the participating countries.
"We will try to get increased volume of shares based on our financial capacity so that we can get significant amount of loan for infrastructural development," he said.
Replying to a query, he said some Asian giants have skipped the MoU signing ceremony last October on being influenced by the Western countries. Some of them like Australia, New Zealand and South Korea are expected to join the bank in the near future, he added.
The bank will have $50 billion primary capital where China alone will subscribe 50 per cent shares.
The World Bank in a report in April last said Bangladesh will need $7.4 billion to $10 billion a year until 2020 to develop infrastructure up to the standard for serving its growing population.
It said in total, the country will require between $74 billion and $100 billion between 2011 and 2020 or 7.38 per cent to 10.02 per cent of its gross domestic product to improve infrastructure.
Presently, Bangladesh is receiving only $4.0 billion loan a year from the multilateral lenders.
    [email protected]