Azerbaijan to pay for its share in AIIB in 2016 – minister

Azerbaijan will pay for its participation in the capital of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in 2016, Azerbaijani Finance Minister Samir Sharifov told reporters Oct.7.

“Azerbaijan must pay $50 million for its share,” he said, adding that in 2016, the government will pay about 20 percent of the sum of $50 million.

“This sum is divided into two parts, we will pay for the first part and the second part is considered to be withdrawn, since it’s paid only in case of emergency,” Sharifov said.

At the same time, the minister didn’t rule out the possibility of changing the amount of the sum that Azerbaijan should pay.

The Azerbaijani government officially expressed interest in becoming one of the AIIB founders March 31, 2015. In April, Azerbaijan was confirmed as one of the countries that joined AIIB.

The objectives of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank are to promote the economic development and cooperation in Asia by investing in infrastructure and other productive sectors, which will be considered as appropriate; to develop the regional cooperation and partnership in addressing the tasks in the field of development, to closely cooperate with other multilateral financial institutions.

The investments in infrastructure of developing regional members, including the power engineering, transport and telecommunications, agriculture, water supply, environment, urban planning and other productive sectors will be the priority areas of AIIB funding.

AIIB’s authorized capital is $100 billion. The share of regional members of the bank will hit 75 percent. China will be the largest shareholder of the bank. Its share is 29.78 percent of the voting shares. Azerbaijan's share in the bank's capital will hit 0.25 percent. Some $254.1 million will be invested in their purchase.

Currently, 1.6 percent of the bank's shares remain undistributed.

/By Trend/