Egypt looks into China AIIB Bank’s cooperation opportunities at IMF Meetings

Egypt is looking into the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)’s support for a number of infrastructure and developmental projects in the coming period.

On the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in Washington, Egypt’s Minister of Finance Amr el-Garhy and Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr have met Friday evening with AIIB representatives to discuss cooperation opportunities.

The Egyptian ministers expressed their country’s willingness to cooperate with the AIIB to finance a number of infrastructure and developmental projects in road, bridges, energy, electricity, and sanitation sectors that would meet with citizens’ needs.

Egypt has recently paid the first tranche of its total $650 million commitment to the AIIB’s capital, the two Egyptian ministers told reporters following their meeting with the Asian bank representatives.

Earlier on June 29, 2015, Egypt signed an article of agreement to contribute to AIIB’s capital.

First proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping two years ago, the bank has become one of China’s biggest foreign policy successes. Despite the opposition of Washington, major U.S. allies such as Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Philippines and South Korea have joined.

AIIB was formally established at the end of 2015 with 57 countries agreeing to be members, 19 of which are Asian, according to the bank’s website.

The capital of the bank is $100 billion, equivalent to 2⁄3 of the capital of the Asian Development Bank and about half that of the World Bank.

The AIIB’s mandate will be to fund projects both inside and outside of Asia.