A new US$100 billion international bank dedicated to the emerging “BRICS” countries opened in China’s commercial hub Shanghai yesterday, officials said, as an alternative to other multilateral lenders.
The “New Development Bank” (NDB), backed by the so-called emerging BRICS nations, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has been viewed as a challenge to Washington-based institutions.
The NDB’s Web site explicitly describes it as an “alternative to the existing US-dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund” which is to address needs for infrastructure and sustainable development. It comes as Beijing — which is seeking a greater role on the global political stage to mirror its rise to become the world’s second-largest economy — is also setting up a separate Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
Chinese Minister of Finance Lou Jiwei (樓繼偉) played down the competitive aspect.
“The NDB will supplement the existing international financial system in a healthy way and explore innovations in governance models,” he told the NDB’s opening ceremony in Shanghai, as quoted by Xinhua news agency.
The bank says on its Web site that it will have authorized capital of US$100 billion, with US$50 billion paid in initially.
Xinhua quoted NDB president K. V. Kamath, formerly a private banker in India, as saying the institution’s management was “working on initiation of operations,” including “making business policy” and “developing project preparations.”
Operations would begin late this year or early next year, he added.
The opening comes two weeks after a BRICS summit hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Moscow — which has suffered huge currency fluctuations and struggled to attract investors since the outbreak of the crisis in Ukraine — sees the bank and a BRICS currency reserve pool as alternative global financial institutions.
At the time of the summit, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov said in a statement that BRICS “illustrates a new polycentric system of international relations” demonstrating the increasing influence of “new centers of power.”
The BRICS nations, which represent 40 percent of the world’s population, formally agreed to establish the bank at a meeting in Brazil in July last year.
The World Bank said it hopes to work with the newcomer.
“We are committed to working closely with the New Development Bank and other multilateral institutions, offering to share our knowledge and to co-finance infrastructure projects,” World Bank president Jim Yong Kim said in a statement.
The regionally focused Asian Development Bank also said it would “look forward” to working with the NDB.
Chinese analysts denied the BRICS bank was aimed at challenging other multilateral agencies.
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
RSS