The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank regularly receives applications for membership. The Chinese Finance Ministry announced that Denmark, Georgia, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Finland expressed their wish to join the project. Importantly, these countries’ applications were officially approved by the Chinese authorities. "With the consent of the existing founding members, the Netherlands, Brazil, Finland, Georgia and Denmark officially became founding countries of the AIIB on April 12," the ministry said in a statement on its website. The idea to create such a financial institution was introduced by the Chinese authorities. The bank was established in Beijing in October 2014. The key goal of the new creditor is to become a worthy alternative and competitor to such giants as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Taking into account the number of members and those willing to participate, the Asian bank is quite able to do it. The United States already started to worry about a loss of customers’ confidence in the IMF. The new lending institution has united 46 countries, which filed applications for joining the bank. Most onlookers point out that almost all US allies are among the shareholders of the AIIB. Even Australia submitted an application for membership. Only Japan refrained from joining the AIIB, thus supporting the US. The bank is intended for boosting financial cooperation in the region and funding infrastructure projects in Asia.
