Follow us on:   

More members to join BRICS Bank: Russia
April 3, 2015, 1:15 pm

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) with his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma and Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) at the 5th BRICS Summit on 27 March 2013 in Durban, South Africa [PPIO]

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) with his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma and Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) at the 5th BRICS Summit on 27 March 2013 in Durban, South Africa [PPIO]

Russian BRICS sherpa Vadim Lukov on Friday said the name of the $100 billion BRICS Bank was finally changed to New Development Bank as the five founding members will be joined by other countries in the future.

Lukov was speaking to journalists in Moscow on Friday, in a briefing ahead of the 7th BRICS Summit on July 8-9 in the Russian city of Ufa, which will be attended by the heads of the five countries- Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa.

After US allies from the EU and Asia lined up to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Moscow and Beijing are upbeat about the expansion of the BRICS Bank as well.

Underscoring the draw of closer economic ties with Beijing, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, South Korea are among the many nations that have signed up to be founding members of the AIIB.

Meanwhile, while assuming the annual presidency of the BRICS on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said BRICS have already proved their effectiveness on the world stage despite being a relatively “young” organization.

“BRICS are coordinating their policies on key international issues ever more closely, and are playing an active part in shaping a multi-polar world order and developing modern models for the world’s financial and trading systems,” Putin said.

Shanghai will host the headquarters of the $100 billion BRICS Bank. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov will likely head up the board of governors at the New Development Bank.

South African Trade and Industry Rob Davies said last year that the Bank’s capital might not be held in US dollars.

“We want to move away from the same old, same old way of doing things. What currencies the capital will be held in is something that will be part of the Sherpa process with the pace set by Brazil, but we expect substantive progress by the time of the next BRICS summit in Russia,” he said.

The BRICS countries make up about 40 per cent of the world’s population and a combined economy of about $16 trillion.

 

 

 TBP and Agencies