South Korea seeks to be AIIB founding member

Leo Melamed, chairman emeritus of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

South Korea said on Thursday it has decided to seek to be a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and so become another key ally of the United States joining the China-led institution.

South Korea's Finance Ministry said in a statement that establishment of the AIIB has been promoted to help funnel more investment money into the region while maintaining supplementary relationships with existing multilateral development banks.

The AIIB aims to become an international financial institution providing support to infrastructure projects in Asia, and is expected to be established by the end of this year, the Chinese government has said.

Despite Washington's repeated pleas for partners to stay away from the bank, an increasing number of its allies are now joining the China-led initiative.

China's Ministry of Finance on Thursday also welcomed Turkey's decision to join the AIIB. Before that, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Switzerland have all applied to join the AIIB as founding members.

Leo Melamed, founding father of global financial futures, said on Thursday at the ongoing Boao Forum that the US was too slow in accepting the necessity of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in the Asian world.

"The AIIB is a very important move by Asia. I applaud that move. And it's necessary there is a development bank like such for the Asian world, whose economic volume is at least a third of the whole planet," he said.

New growth

Melamed, 82, chairman emeritus of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, said he thinks the US will join the AIIB because "it will be foolish not to".

Melamed is convinced that the AIIB will serve the Asian world in its development.

"It will be great when it develops itself to be available to new ideas and new growth for the Asian world, where I think new growth will be happening in the next 30 years. The topic should be high on the agenda of the Obama administration.

"I don't know what the Obama administration will do in the future, but I believe that they have to be very flexible in their thinking as the Asian world develops."