World Bank, New Development Bank BRICS Lay Groundwork for Cooperation

WASHINGTON, September 9. /TASS/. The World Bank Group (WBG) President Jim Yong Kim and New Development Bank BRICS (NDB BRICS) President Kundapur Vaman Kamath signed a memorandum of understanding between the two institutions aimed at stepping up “cooperation in addressing the world’s enormous infrastructure needs,” the organizations said in a joint press release on Friday.

“NDB and WBG’s cooperative efforts will focus primarily on infrastructure. Currently, 1.2 billion people lack access to electricity and 2.4 billion lack basic sanitation services. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016, the World Bank Group invested $25 billion in infrastructure,” the report said.

The agreement between the NDB and WBG highlights “potential common areas of interest including exploring and pursuing opportunities for the co-financing of projects; facilitating knowledge exchange regarding their operations, in accordance with their respective policies and procedures; exploring and pursuing opportunities for advisory services; and facilitating secondments and staff exchanges,” the organizations reported.

“I’m delighted that today we are formalizing our partnership,” Kim was quoted as saying. “Signing this agreement enables our institutions to strengthen our collaboration. When the world’s multilateral banks work closely together, and support development that promotes inclusive growth in low- and middle-income countries, the poor and the vulnerable benefit the most,” he added.

“We greatly appreciate timely support offered by the World Bank Group throughout our establishment process, and look forward to advancing and deepening our cooperation. We at the NDB, will listen, learn and collaborate to promote sustainable infrastructure development in our member countries,” Kamath was quoted as saying.

The New Development Bank BRICS is a multilateral development bank operated by the BRICS states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). The financial institution located in Shanghai, aims to promote infrastructure and sustainable development with an initial focus on BRICS countries, complementing the efforts of other financial institutions to realize the common goal of global growth. In February 2016, the NDB became fully operational.

Source : TASS News Agency