1st LD-Writethru: AIIB expands membership to 77

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) announced Saturday that its Board of Governors has adopted resolutions approving seven applications to join the bank, bringing its total approved membership to 77.

The approved applications came from three regional prospective members -- Bahrain, Cyprus and Samoa -- and four non-regional prospective members, namely Bolivia, Chile, Greece and Romania.

"More and more countries are signing up to become members of AIIB because they see how internationalism can promote development in Asia, with far reaching benefits for the global economy," said Jin Liqun, AIIB president.

"We welcome our new prospective members and thank them for joining us in our effort to meet the infrastructure needs in the region," he said.

The seven prospective members will officially join AIIB once they complete the required domestic processes and deposit their 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, according to AIIB.

With 57 signatories at its launch in January 2016 and the approval of 13 prospective members in March 2017, AIIB aims to provide financing to address the daunting infrastructure needs across Asia. Endi