After Britain's application last week to be a founding member of China's proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Tuesday saw confirmation that Germany, France, and Italy too intend to join the 50-billion-U.S.-dollar bank .

President Xi Jinping put forward the idea of the new investment bank during his visit to Southeast Asia in October 2013. Its main aims are to assist countries in Asia Pacific to develop infrastructure, to promote connectivity, and to encourage the process of economic integration in the region. The bank will not only reinforce the infrastructure as a dynamic engine of economic growth, but also improve the efficiency of Asian capital and its contribution to regional development.

Due to a different positioning and business focus, the AIIB will have a complementary rather than competitive relationship with the existing multilateral development banks.

On the one hand the bank will continue to promote further reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB). On the other hand it will play an effective complementary role in the functions of the WB and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in investment, financing and international assistance. The ADB predicted that during the 10 years between 2010 and 2020, infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region would require an investment of 8 trillion US dollars, while the loans provided by the ADB amount to only 10 billion US dollars per year. The AIIB will fill this huge gap in the field of infrastructure investment in the developing Asian countries.

Meanwhile, the AIIB also needs the active participation of other non-Asian countries.

Britain, France, Germany, Italy and other developed countries will bring funds, and the advanced management techniques of international banks, and also improve the. governance structure and the international image of the new bank, a factor which will inject vitality and ensure sound and inclusive future development.

The AIIB adheres to the principles of openness and tolerance and welcomes the participation of other members of the global community. Unfortunately, the bank's launch is being obstructed by the United States - not only does the US itself refuse to join the bank, it is doing its best to prevent some of its allies from becoming founder members as well.

In recent years, the United States has been urging China to exercise leadership commensurate with its growing strength and to provide more resources to support international development and other constructive initiatives and global goals. However, as soon as China tries to assume more responsibility, initiate the establishment of the AIIB, and make a greater contribution to Asian and international development, the United States sticks a spoke in the wheel. Such conduct goes further than short-sightedness; it is blatantly hypocritical.

Instead of going out of its way to be obstructive, the United States should actively join the bank, share its international management experience in banking, and help to make the whole operation more efficient. This would undoubtedly be a good thing for the United States, for Asia and for the rest of the world.

The author is Shi Jianxun, a professor at the School of Economics and Management of Tongji University in Shanghai

This article was edited and translated from 《世界需要亚投行　亚投行需要世界》, source: People's Daily Overseas Edition