Year-ender: Major financial news of China

AIIB reaches milestone of 100 members

Jin Liqun, president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, said he wants AIIB to become the bank that connects Asia to the world, as it marked a total of 100 approved memberships on July 13.

The AIIB Board of Governors approved on July 13 the applications of three African countries — Benin, Djibouti and Rwanda — at the bank's annual meeting in Luxembourg. This would bring the total number of AIIB members to 100, including 70 whose memberships have been ratified by their parliaments.

"AIIB members collectively account for 78 percent of the world's population and 63 percent of global GDP. With the backing of all of our members, we are building a lean, clean and green institution that can help to support their sustainable development," Jin said.

Finance Minister Liu Kun said at the meeting on the same day that he hopes the AIIB will give play to its own advantage as a multilateral development bank to link its strategy with the development blueprints of its members, the Belt and Road Initiative and the Connecting Europe and Asia Strategy of the European Union.