Cairo (AFP) - Egypt has been approved as a founding member of the Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, opening the way for it to benefit from the bank's $50 billion in funds, the foreign ministry said Thursday.
Britain, Germany, France and
Italy are also among the 57 founders of the AIIB, despite scepticism
about it in Washington and Tokyo.
As
a result of its acceptance, Cairo will also have access to its "vast
funding opportunities to finance development and infrastructure
projects," the ministry said.
It will also be able to participate in formulating the institution's regulations and policies, the ministry said.
President
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who ousted his Islamist Mohamed Morsi in 2013,
has vowed to revive Egypt's economy battered after years of political
turmoil.
