Egypt has been approved as a founding member of the Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, opening the way for it to benefit from the bank’s $50 billion in funds, the foreign ministry said Thursday. Britain, Germany, France and Italy are also among the 57 founders of the AIIB, despite scepticism about it in Washington and Tokyo. As a result of its acceptance, Cairo will also have access to its ‘vast funding opportunities to finance development and infrastructure projects,’ the ministry said. It will also be able to participate in formulating the institution’s regulations and policies, the ministry said. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who ousted his Islamist Mohamed Morsi in 2013, has vowed to revive Egypt’s economy battered after years of political turmoil. In March, at an international investment conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt signed investment contracts worth $36.2 billion aimed at kick-starting economic growth. China and 20 other countries signed a memorandum of understanding in October to establish the AIIB. The new multinational lender is seen as a rival to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, two institutions under strong US influence. Washington has voiced concern about whether it would meet international governance, environmental and social standards, with president Barack Obama’s administration waging an intense but low-profile lobbying campaign against it. China is expected to foot the bulk of the initial money needed to get the AIIB started, with donations from other members set to increase the size of the overall fund to more than $100 billion.

News:New Age/23-Age-2015