Hungarian Economy Ministry said that the measure would double Hungary’s paid in capital, adding that at the same time the step fits in well with Hungary’s economic goals and its policy of Opening to the East, and also makes it possible to reactivate the earlier paid in initial capital, worth €20m at current value.

IIB’s paid-in capital was €272.6 mln as of July 2014, and it will be raised to 341.3 mln under an IIB Council decision taken in June 2013, the bank’s website shows. Own funds reached €374 mln at the end of July.

Members of IIB, established in 1970, currently are (stakes in brackets): Bulgaria (15.5%), the Czech Republic (11.1%), Cuba (2.0%), Mongolia (0.4%), Romania (6.8%), Russia (55.0%), Slovakia (7.9%) and Vietnam (1.3%). Hungary left the bank, which offers mid- and long-term credit for development projects, in 2000 because of its insufficiently efficient and transparent operations, the economy ministry said earlier, but added that the bank has been radically restructured in the past two years, and forms its strategy and operations in tight cooperation’s with big international financial institutions, such as the EBRD, the EIB or the World Bank.