State Duma to ratify agreement on BRICS Development Bank

Chair of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Sergei Naryshkin said the Duma plans to ratify the agreement on the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) on 20 February.

"We have on our agenda a draft law that provides for the formation of the NDB by the BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. I think this will be an important contribution to the association's activities during the year of Russia's BRICS Presidency. I hope our partners will ratify the agreement this year as well, which would allow the bank to start funding the first projects," he said.

The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation also hopes that the NDB will start operating by the end of 2015. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said the adopted federal budget for 2015 has already allocated the funds for the NDB ($2 billion over seven years).

On 17 February the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets advised the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament to adopt a law ratifying the agreement on the NDB. Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said at the committee meeting that the bank will have its headquarters in Shanghai (China). "The first President of the New Development Bank will be from India and the first Head of the Board of Governors from Russia," he said, adding that the first NDB Board of Governors Meeting will take place in the run-up to the BRICS Summit in Ufa. "Apparently, we'll hold it here in Moscow on 5 or 6 July but only if the founding members have completed the internal procedures and adopted the related acts," he said.

The agreement on the formation of the NDB was signed in Fortaleza (Brazil) in June 2014. Under the agreement the bank is to become one of the world's largest multilateral development institutions with a stated capital of $100 billion. It will fund infrastructure projects in the BRICS countries and other developing nations.