The Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank, known as PTA Bank, has approved China, the first non-African member state of the bank, to increase share and others to join the bank.
The new members to join the bank include South Korea, Belarus, Brazil, and Malaysia as well as all African countries that are interested in joining the bank.
At the conclusion of the bank's 29th annual general meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Friday, Admassu Tadesse, President of the Bank, told Xinhua that the bank has decided to increase its capital and has invited China to take additional share in the bank.
"We had a very good meeting apart from adopting, approving, the annual report and the financial statements. We considered a number of strategic matters, one of them being growing the capital of the bank," said Tadesse.
"We are now looking to increase the capital. The Board of Governance has approved an increase in the capital and the People's Republic of China has been invited to take additional share in the bank alongside the African members," he said.
"The People's Republic of China has 6 percent. The increase is not going to take China too far up. I think it is for China to decide how much more it wants to take and there is no specific number that I can report at this point," the president said.
"The approval (for new members) has been done but we have not signed the final legal agreement. So, it would be improper for me to talk about the actual number," he said.
According to the president, with a balance sheet of close to 2. 2 billion U.S. dollars and authorized capital of 3 billion dollars, PTA Bank has strong profitability and very positive ratings.
"So, we have seen unprecedented interest from new investors coming to the bank from Latin America, from Europe, from the Middle East and also now from Asia. So, the bank is in a very good position to continue growing in the years to come," said Tadesse.
The bank has also lifted sanctions on Somalia, a member of the bank from Africa, and which has not fulfilled obligations of the bank, said the president.
The sanctions have been lifted on Somalia by the bank as expression of goodwill and support to help Somalia in its reconstruction efforts, said the president.
