BEIJING: Countries from five continents formally signed up to the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank at a ceremony on Monday, officials said, as Beijing steps up its global diplomatic and economic role.
Australia was the first country to sign the articles of association creating the AIIB's legal framework in the Great Hall of the People, an AFP journalist saw, followed by 49 other founding members.
Seven more are expected to do so by the end of the year.
The bank will have a share capital of $100 billion, with $20 billion paid in initially, the document showed.
The bank "will provide new opportunities for our businesses and also promote sustainable growth in Asia", said Singapore's senior minister for finance and transport Josephine Teo, who represented the city-state.
The AIIB has been viewed by some as a rival to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, and the United States and Japan -- the world's largest and third-largest economies, respectively -- have notably declined to join.
Beijing will be by far the largest shareholder at about 30 percent, the articles of association posted on the website of China's finance ministry showed. India is the second biggest at 8.4 percent with Russia third on 6.5 percent.
The voting structure gives smaller members a slightly disproportionately larger voice, and a statement accompanying the articles said China will have 26 percent of the votes.
The share is not enough to give Beijing a formal veto over the bank's decision-making, but it will still have an outsized say.
Among non-Asian participants, Germany is the largest shareholder with 4.5 percent, followed by France with 3.4 percent and Brazil on 3.2 percent.
The AIIB is expected to go into operation later this year and its headquarters will be in Beijing, despite calls from Indonesia that it be based in Jakarta, further cementing China's prominence in the institution.
But all financial terms in the agreement are in US dollars, rather than China's currency, the renminbi, and the bank's working language will be English.
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