NDB President reports to BRICS leaders on the Bank’s progress at Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa

On 26 July 2018, Mr. K.V. Kamath, the President of the New Development Bank met with the Leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa during the 10th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

During the meeting, Mr. K.V. Kamath delivered an update on the progress of the NDB and received valuable guidance from the five leaders on various aspects of the Bank’s work.

“The Bank is now fully operational and is in a rapid, though prudent, growth phase, building on the strong foundation that has already been laid,” highlighted Mr. K.V. Kamath.

“Thus far, the NDB has approved 23 projects for about USD 5.7 billion in our member countries. These projects now go beyond the core renewable energy sectors that we earlier focused on into areas such as rural roads, ecosystem restoration, water supply particularly in rural areas, irrigation system restructuring, and energy conservation, reflecting our ability to appraise increasingly complex projects as we continue to move up the learning curve. Almost all of our lending supports sustainable infrastructure and development,” said the NDB President.

“The Bank’s Africa Regional Center in Johannesburg that was opened last year is now operational. The ARC is the face of the Bank for the African continent and will progressively support a growing range of our work. In a very short period, the ARC has been instrumental in giving us insight into how the Bank could be most effective in South Africa and has enabled us to scale up our lending in the country <…> We will take the lessons learned from the ARC to the Americas Regional Center in Sao Paulo that we expect to open later this year,” noted Mr. K.V. Kamath.

Background information

The New Development Bank (NDB) is a multilateral development bank established by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in 2014 with an initial authorized capital of USD 100 billion. The Bank is mandated to mobilize resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging economies and developing countries, complementing the efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global growth and development.