AIIB approves membership of Papua New Guinea and Kenya

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s Board of Governors has approved two applicants to join the bank, bringing its total approved membership to 86.

The approved applicants include one regional member, Papua New Guinea, and one non-regional prospective member, Kenya.

"We’re very happy to welcome Papua New Guinea and Kenya as prospective members of AIIB," said Danny Alexander, vice president and corporate secretary of the multilateral development bank.

"AIIB now has 86 approved members from six continents. This shows a strong commitment to promoting infrastructure development through rules-based multilateral cooperation with high standards of governance,” Alexander added.

The two prospective members will officially join AIIB once they complete the required domestic process and deposit the first installment of capital with the bank. The shares allocated to the new prospective members come from AIIB’s existing pool of unallocated shares.

At its launch in January 2016, there were 57 signatories to AIIB’s Articles of Agreement. In March, May, June and December 2017, the bank approved another 27 prospective members.

With a mission to improve social and economic outcome in Asia and beyond, the Beijing-headquartered AIIB is committed to investing in sustainable infrastructure and other productive sectors.