Business
New BRICS bank to have wider representation – Jacob Zuma
For now, only the BRICS member nations will be able to draw from the US$50 billion in the New Development Bank and US$100 billion in the Contingent Reserve Arrangement.
The IMF, set up with the World Bank during the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, has faced criticism for imposing onerous conditions and for not giving wider representation to developing nations on its controlling committees. Some defenders of the IMF say that restructuring plans encouraged long-term stability in Asian nations hit by the 1997-1998 crisis, as well as in Turkey, despite short-term pain.
The BRICS bank plan came after an agreement to give China and other emerging powers more voting power in the IMF got bogged down in the US Senate due to opposition by conservative Republicans.
Copyright 2014 AFP
