SHANGHAI: BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) has opened for operations in Shanghai, and will seek to deploy its $50 billion initial capital to fund infrastructure and sustainable development projects.
Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei, Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong and NDB chief Kundapur Vaman Kamath attended the ceremony, Chinese media reported.
The agreement to establish the NDB was signed by the BRICS member states – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – during the group’s sixth summit in Fortaleza, Brazil in July 2014. The main purpose of the new finance infrastructure is to promote sustainable development in BRICS states.
China will be the biggest AIIB shareholder at about 30 percent, according to the legal framework signed late last month by 50 founding member countries.
The United States and Japan — the world’s largest and third-largest economies, respectively — have declined to join the AIIB.
