"It is a significant and exciting development in the world order that China is now establishing the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank [AIIB]," said Mogens Jensen, Danish Minister of Trade and Development in an announcement made in China on Saturday.
"Since many Danish trade interests as well as development cooperation interests will be at stake in AIIB, there are many reasons to engage in and influence AIIB’s investment decisions from its beginning."
Denmark is the first Nordic country to confirm its application; on Sunday, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, who is in China attending the annual Boao Forum for Asia, told Chinese President Xi Jinpeng that his country is "highly interested" in the initiative and is keen to cooperate.
The Chinese Ministry of Finance said in a statement on Sunday that China "welcomes Denmark’s decision," and that Denmark's status as a founding member can be approved on April 12, subject to the approval of the bank's other founding members.
According to the Ministry, as of Sunday 42 countries had joined or applied to join the AIIB as founder members of the bank, which intends to meet the financing needs of infrastructure projects in Asia and is set to have authorized capital of US$100 billion and initial subscribed capital of around US$50 billion. A report published by the Asian Development Bank [ADB] in 2012 calculated that the region needs another $800 billion every year until 2020 to meet its funding shortfall for infrastructure projects. Manila-based ADB, which is dominated by Japan and the US, lends no more than $10 billion for infrastructure projects each year.
Of the world's major economies, only the US, Canada and Japan have so far not applied to sign up. Earlier this month, Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said his country had not ruled out cooperation in the future, but would not make a decision before the March 31 deadline.
