Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail has chosen Minister of Finance Amr el-Garhy as Egypt's governor at the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr was also named as Egypt's deputy governor of the Chinese bank. Egypt signed earlier on June 29, 2015 an article of agreement to contribute to AIIB's capital. Nasr discussed then on the sidelines of the AIIB inauguration ceremony, with the bank's chairman Jin Liqun the future of cooperation between the Bank and Egypt and tackled the priorities of the government's economic and social programme for the current period. Egypt's total commitment to the AIIB's capital is $650 million approximately, Minister Nasr told Amwal Al Ghad earlier in April, adding that the first tranche of Egypt's commitment to AIIB's capital would amount to around $26 million. AIIB's board of directors have approved Egypt's request to pay half of its contribution in the AIIB's capital in Egyptian pound, she said. The contributions will be made over 10 years. First proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping two years ago, the bank has become one of China's biggest foreign policy successes. Despite the opposition of Washington, major U.S. allies such as Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Philippines and South Korea have joined. AIIB was formally established at the end of 2015 with 57 countries agreeing to be members, 19 of which are Asian, according to the bank's website. The capital of the bank is $100 billion, equivalent to 2⁄3 of the capital of the Asian Development Bank and about half that of the World Bank. The AIIB's mandate will be to fund projects both inside and outside of Asia.
