The number of countries applying to be founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) rose to 46 by the Tuesday deadline.

The AIIB is a multilateral development bank proposed by China to provide financing to infrastructure projects in the Asia region.

The soaring participation reflects China's growing international clout and many countries’ desire for a more inclusive, balanced and mutually beneficial international economic order, Xinhua news agency reported.

The growing infrastructure demand in cash-strapped Asian countries will necessitate the need for more than $700 billion each year by 2020.

More countries are urging Washington to approve IMF quota reforms to allow a better balance of power, but previous attempts to give greater weight to rising states have stalled out of national interests.

This is exactly where the AIIB, a China-proposed international lender open to all qualified countries, came in ready to finance major infrastructure projects in Asia and meet the growing demand for a more inclusive and balanced international financial order.

Focused as it is on infrastructure development in Asia, the AIIB offers abundant trade and investment opportunities also for developed countries with advanced technology.

47 countries have already applied to join AIIB including China, India, Indonesia, Israel, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Laos, Maldives, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Vietnam, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Turkey, South Korea, Brazil, Russia, Georgia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, Egypt, Finland, Kyrgyzstan and Sweden.