Beijing, Jul 7 (PTI) The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), in which India is the second-largest shareholder after China, has approved the establishment of an Interim Operational Hub, its first overseas office in Abu Dhabi.

The preferred location for the hub will be Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), pending formal agreement to be finalised during the coming weeks, the bank's press release said on Thursday.

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The UAE has been designated as the preferred location for the hub because it best fits the bank's selection criteria, in particular superb connectivity to the lender's global membership, the Beijing-headquartered bank said.

The hub will provide AIIB with a robust platform to enable effective supervision of its growing investment portfolio, strengthen its project monitoring and implementation services across the globe, it said.

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As one of AIIB's founding members, the UAE is one of the region's fastest-growing economies and has been actively promoting green transition, said the statement issued by the AIIB.

Starting with 57 founding members in 2016, AIIB now has a total of 105 members. It has developed a portfolio of 181 projects in 33 member countries with a total amount of USD 35.7 billion to date.

The bank is headed by former Chinese Vice Minister for Finance, Jin Liqun.

Former Reserve Bank Governor Urjit Patel is one its five Vice Presidents.

Besides being the second largest shareholder after China, India has also secured USD 6.7 billion funding for 28 projects in recent years.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)