Lawmakers on Wednesday officially ratified Iran's membership in Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the international investment bank launched in 2015 by China.
The parliament also authorized the Iranian government to purchase 15,808 shares of AIIB worth $580,800. It also permitted Iran's participation in AIIB’s future capital increase.
Lawmakers also required Iran’s interactions with AIIB to be in accordance with the Shariah and the country’s foreign policy, IRNA reported.
Last December, President Hassan Rouhani sent the bill for Iran’s membership in Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to the Majlis. The bill specifies that membership in AIIB is in accordance with the country's declared foreign policy to foster relations with Asian sates and help augment Asia’s resilience in times of international crises.
The bill also highlights the strengthening of ties between nations through infrastructure development.
The China-based AIIB started work in mid-January 2016. The international financial institution proposed by China will invest in Asia-Pacific infrastructure projects and is widely regarded as a rival to western-based institutions such as IMF and the Washington-based World Bank.
Economy Minister Ali Tayyebnia and representatives from 27 founding member-states signed the new bank’s constitution on June 29, 2015, in Beijing.
China’s newest development bank is poised to extend its lending activities beyond Asia to Africa and Latin America, and held its first annual meeting last month for 57 founding shareholders, the vast majority of them being countries from Asia and western Europe.
But, according to an internal list of “potential new members” circulated to delegates, the bank’s complexion is set to change with a surge in applicants from Africa and Latin America, Financial Times reports.
That would allow AIIB, which can only fund projects in member countries, to rapidly expand its presence in both regions as western governments wrestle with the consequences of the UK’s vote to withdraw from the EU.
