A ceremony of the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Establishing of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) was signed in Beijing, China, on 24 October.

Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam signed the memorandum.

The main goal of new financial institution is to realize infrastructure projects in Asian countries to reduce gap in their economic development. The priority areas of funding will be energy, transportation, logistics, urban and rural infrastructure.

The AIIB headquarters will be located in Beijing. The MoU specifies that the authorised capital of AIIB is $100 billion and the initial subscribed capital is expected to be around $50 billion.

The AIIB will complement the activities of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, but will focus on the development of infrastructure. Official opening and start of the activities of the ABII scheduled for late 2015.