YEREVAN, March 23. / ARKA /. Armenia will become a member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (ABIA), Prime News reported. It said the Bank’s Board of Governors adopted resolutions approving 13 applicants to join the Bank, bringing the Bank’s total approved membership to 70.

This is the first time AIIB has welcomed new prospective members to the Bank since its inception. The approved applicants include five regional and eight non-regional prospective members. The new members are Afghanistan, Armenia, Fiji, Hong Kong (China), Timor-Leste, Belgium, Canada, Ethiopia, Hungary, Ireland, Peru, the Republic of Sudan and Venezuela.

The 13 prospective members will officially join AIIB once they complete the required domestic processes and deposit the first installment of capital with the Bank. The shares allocated to the new prospective members come from the Bank’s existing pool of unallocated shares.

“The interest in joining AIIB from around the world affirms the rapid progress we have made to establish the Bank as an international institution," said Jin Liqun, President, AIIB. “I am very proud that AIIB now has members from almost every continent, and we anticipate further applications being considered by our Board of Governors later this year.”

AIIB is a new multilateral financial institution founded to bring countries together to address the daunting infrastructure needs across Asia. Headquartered in Beijing, AIIB’s mission is to improve economic and social development in Asia by investing in high quality, financially viable and environmentally friendly infrastructure projects.-0-