China and 20 other countries moved forward Friday towards setting up an Asian infrastructure lender seen as a counterweight to Western backed international development banks. The signatories put their names to a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, to establish the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, AIIB, at a ceremony in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The institution, whose development has been driven by China, will be based in Beijing according to the official news agency Xinhua, and is expected to have initial capital of 50 billion US dollars. It is intended to address the region's burgeoning demand for transportation, dams, ports and other facilities, officials say. But other than China, among Asia's ten largest economies only India and Singapore signed the AIIB memorandum, with three of the top five, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia, notably absent. The Japanese government has expressed concern, while the United States is reportedly fiercely opposed to the AIIB.