Candidates for membership in the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) may be announced before the July BRICS summit, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Storchak said on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2020) Candidates for membership in the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) may be announced before the July BRICS summit, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Storchak said on Tuesday.
"We hope that by the BRICS summit, which will be held in St. Petersburg in July, several potential member countries will be announced. It depends on the situation. The bank does not force the acceptance of new members. We believe that there are enough existing multilateral development banks. The new development bank, as its shareholders decided, will expand conservatively, not exponentially, as was the case with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank," Storchak told reporters.
The decision on creating the NDB was made by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa at the 2013 summit held in the South African coastal city of Durban. At the following summit in Brazil's Fortaleza in 2014, the bloc's leaders signed an agreement establishing the NDB to boost cooperation among the five-member states and invest in the countries' infrastructure and sustainable development projects.
The bank is open for membership to any UN country, but the cumulative share of BRICS nations can never be less than 55 percent of the voting potential.
