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BRICS Finance Ministers meet in Washington
April 11, 2014, 4:52 am

"We've made very good progress on the new development bank and most of the formal documentation is ready. There will be a few issues left, which will be resolved between now and the middle of July when we hope the summit will take place,” South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said [GCIS]

“We’ve made very good progress on the new development bank and most of the formal documentation is ready. There will be a few issues left, which will be resolved between now and the middle of July when we hope the summit will take place,” South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said [GCIS]

BRICS Finance Ministers have met on the sidelines of an IMF/World Bank meet in Washington in which they discussed preparations for the BRICS-led development bank, a 100 billion contingency reserve arrangement and the forthcoming Summit in Fortaleza in Brazil.

“We’ve made very good progress on the new development bank and most of the formal documentation is ready. There will be a few issues left, which will be resolved between now and the middle of July when we hope the summit will take place,” South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said.

“On the contingency reserve arrangements, we’re also almost 90 percent of the way towards agreement. Formal documents are ready and we have the basis to reach 100 percent agreement before the summit,” Gordhan added.

The establishment of the BRICS Development Bank is largely seen as the first significant step of the bloc of five.

The bank was announced during the fifth BRICS Summit in Durban in March this year.

“We have agreed to establish the new development bank. The initial capital contribution to the bank should be substantial and sufficient for the bank to be effective in financing infrastructure,” the BRICS leaders said in a joint statement.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the five finance ministers also criticised stalled IMF reforms.

“We’ve discussed our mutual concerns about the slow pace of the IMF reforms and the kind of stalemate that we find ourselves in currently and we hope to work with everyone to find an equitable solution. But clearly a lot depends on the US,” said Gordhan.

The 6th BRICS Summit will be held in Brazil in July.

 TBP