The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Saturday that it was ready to work with the China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) so long as standards were met, while also announcing changes to boost its own lending capacity by billions of dollars.

A total of 57 countries have signed up to become founding members of the AIIB.

Addressing a media conference at the start of the multilateral lender's annual meeting of its board of governors in Azerbaijan, ADB President Takehiko Nakao said the bank wanted to cooperate with AIIB, provided criteria were met.

To boost its own lending capacity, the ADB also announced a merger of its Asian Development Fund and its ordinary capital resources balance sheet.