Business
New BRICS bank to have wider representation – Jacob Zuma
A new development bank launched by emerging economies will help all nations in distress to return to health, South African President Jacob Zuma said earlier this week.
The BRICS bloc of countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa announced last month that they were setting up a development bank and emergency reserve fund.
This has been seen as a major challenge to the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, which emerging powers see as biased towards Western policy positions.
Zuma, visiting Washington for the US – Africa summit, argued that the IMF has very few success stories to show despite the often austere regimens it imposes on troubled economies in return for emergency loans.
“There has been concern from the African leaders that the existing banks that have been there before have not succeeded to produce an example country that was helped successfully and is now thriving,” Zuma told a news conference.
The new bank, he said, “is going to do things differently. No country will go to the BRICS bank and say, I need to be rescued, and find itself not being rescued.”
Experts say that much remains unclear about the scope of a BRICS bank, including how much risk it would take.
