BRICS approves launch of development bank

BRICS nations on Wednesday decided to establish a new development bank to finance infrastructure and to create a USD 100 billion Contingency Reserve Arrangement to tackle any financial crisis in the emerging economies.
The decision was taken at the BRICS Summit in Durban which also launched a Business Council to encourage investment and trade in member countries and to expand business cooperation.
Leaders of the inter-continental grouping including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, met in Durban on Wednesday for an extended session and accepted the report of their finance ministers saying “we are satisfied that the establishment of a New Development Bank is feasible and viable”. “We considered that developing countries face challenges of infrastructure development due to insufficient long-term financing and foreign direct investment, especially inestment in capital stock. “This constrains global aggregate demand. BRICS cooperation towards more productive use of global financial resources can make a positive contribution to addressing this problem,” the laders said in a statement after the two-hour summit.
However, the leaders did not decide on the capital for the proposed bank leaving it to the finance ministers to negotiate this and other issues before September.
The development bank, mooted by India at the last year’s Summit in Delhi, was originally proposed to be started with a capital of USD 50 billion with USD 10 billion from each of the members.
Incidentally, differences appear unresolved with reservations from South Africa and Brazil over the contribution.
Hailing the development bank initiative along with the other leaders, Singh said it gave him great satisifaction to note that one of the ideas that they discussed first in New Delhi — that of instituting a mechanism to recycle surplus savings into infrastructure investments in developing countries — has been given a concrete shape during the Durban Summit.
“Our finance ministers will now work to develop the details of the project,” he told a joint press conference with the other leaders. Besides host President Jacob Zuma, new Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Brazilian President Dila Rouseff participated in the summit.
In his address, Zuma said the summit decided to enter formal negotiations to establish a BRICS-led new development bank based on their own considerable infrastructure needs, amounting to USD 4.5 trillion over the next five years and to cooperate with the other emerging markets and developing countries in future.
Briefing reporters after the summit, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said India gave two big ideas — BRICS Development Bank and a Contingency Reserve Arrangement (CRA) at the Delhi summit last year and “they have now become a reality”.
“Both the ideas have been approved by the leaders. Whatever the individual views of the finance ministers, the leaders have wholeheartedly welcomed the establishment of the Bank and the CRA,” he said noting the Brazilian President’s remarks that the capital of the Bank must be commensurate with the challenges and goals of the Bank.
He said Putin fully supported establishment of the Bank while China had always been enthusiastic in supporting the Bank.