{"id":55458,"date":"2015-03-16T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=55458"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:25:58","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:25:58","slug":"uk-snubs-us-to-join-china-led-asian-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/03\/uk-snubs-us-to-join-china-led-asian-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Snubs US to Join China-Led Asian Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"File<\/a>

File photo of Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron in The Hague, the Netherlands, March 25, 2014 [Xinhua]<\/p><\/div>13 Mar 2015 – <\/em>Overlooking US censure, the UK has announced its decision to join China\u2019s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank<\/a>, becoming the first \u201cmajor western country\u201d to apply for membership.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am delighted to announce today that the UK will be the first major Western country to become a prospective founder member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which has already received significant support in the region,\u201d said UK Finance Minister George Osborne on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoining the AIIB at the founding stage will create an unrivalled opportunity for the UK and Asia to invest and grow together,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In a landmark achievement, 21 Asian nations including China and India in October last year signed on the creation of a new infrastructure investment bank which would rival the World Bank. The new Bank\u00a0has a capital target of more than $100 billion.<\/p>\n

The governments of Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Vietnam signed on as founding members of the new Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK will join discussions later this month with other founding members,\u201d said a UK government statement<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Washington reacted to UK\u2019s announcement by saying it is circumspect about whether the AIIB would have sufficiently high standards on governance and environmental and social safeguards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope and expect that the U.K. will use its voice to push for adoption of high standards,\u201d said Patrick Ventrell, spokesman for President Barack Obama\u2019s National Security Council<\/p>\n

The authorized capital of AIIB is $100 billion and the initial subscribed capital is expected to be around $50 billion. The paid-in ratio will be 20 per cent.<\/p>\n

AIIB will be an inter-governmental regional development institution in Asia and Beijing will be the host city for AIIB\u2019s headquarters.<\/p>\n

The AIIB\u00a0will extend China\u2019s financial reach and compete not only with the World Bank, but also with the Asian Development Bank, which is heavily dominated by Japan.<\/p>\n

China and other emerging economies, including BRICS, have long protested against their limited voice at other multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank (ADB).<\/p>\n

China is grouped in the\u00a0\u2018Category II\u2019 voting bloc at the World Bank while at the\u00a0Asian Development Bank, China with a 5.5 per cent share is far outdone by America\u2019s 15.7 per cent and Japan\u2019s 15.6 per cent share.<\/p>\n

The ADB has estimated that in the next decade Asian countries will need $8 trillion in infrastructure investments to maintain the current economic growth rate.<\/p>\n

China scholar Asit Biswas\u00a0at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore, says Washington\u2019s criticism towards the China-led Bank is \u201cchildish\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome critics argue that the AIIB will reduce the environmental, social and procurement standards in a race to the bottom. This is a childish criticism, especially because China has invited other governments to help with funding and governance,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cReports indicate that the US is pressuring Australia and South Korea not to join the AIIB. But as Hedley Bull, eminent late Oxford professor, once said, \u201cpeople have friends but countries have only interests\u201d, he adds.<\/p>\n

TBP<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 thebricspost.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13 Mar 2015 – Overlooking US censure, the UK has announced its decision to join China\u2019s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, becoming the first \u201cmajor western country\u201d to apply for membership. China and BRICS have long protested against their limited voice at the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[146],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}