BRICS development bank to be launched next week

The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group of emerging giants are expected to sign a deal next week to open their own development bank by 2016, Russia’s finance minister said Wednesday.

The entity would be called “New Development Bank”, with each BRICS member to contribute US$2 billion to its capital, Anton Siluanov said, according to Russian news agencies.

The bank would have a maximum capital of US$100 billion and be headquartered in Shanghai, Durban or New Delhi.

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa unveiled in 2013 their plans to create the bank, which aims to rival Western-dominated institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“During the summit, we should decide on the creation of the bank and a currency fund,” said Siluanov. He added that member states would have to make their contributions to the bank’s capital within 7 years but that the bank should effectively be created by 2016.

Membership in the bank, which would specialize in financing infrastructure works, would be open to other UN states but the 5 BRICS nations would hold a controlling share of above 55 percent.

According to Siluanov, the BRICS group would also sign a framework deal for a fund during the summit. The fund, dubbed a “mini-IMF”, would amount to US$100 billion, with US$41 billion from China, US$18 billion each from India, Brazil and Russia and US$5 billion from South Africa.

Copyright 2014 AFP