World Bank hails Britain's intention to join AIIB

The World Bank welcomes Britain's application to be a founding member of the China-proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and it has prepared to help such multilateral development banks, said President Jim Yong Kim here on Friday.

Kim made the remarks after addressing the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, saying vast majority of a trillion U.S. dollars of infrastructure spending a year goes to the developed countries and there is a huge deficit in such spending in emerging markets and low-income countries.

"So, from our perspective, simply for the need for more infrastructure spending, there is no doubt that we welcome the entry of the AIIB," Kim said, noting that there are still 1.4 billion people on the world don't have access to electricity and 2. 5 billion people to sanitation services.

He said World Bank will use its 70-year experiences and projects preparation with safeguards to help the development banks prepare for the infrastructure projects.

Kim said his group has focused intensively on providing knowledge and solutions to the banks, including the AIIB, in case of the banks or the countries facing technical problems.

On Thursday, Britain became the first major Western country to apply to join the AIIB that will be an international financial institution, providing support to infrastructure projects in Asia.

It is expected that the AIIB will be formally established by the end of 2015.

Twenty one countries including China, India and Singapore have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build the bank.

The application deadline is on March 31. Endi