CHUNGKING, September 26 (Itar-Tass) — The setting up of a development bank by the BRICS group of nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) will contribute to integration of these nations, Professor of the Diplomatic Academy at the Russian Foreign Ministry, Yaroslav Lisovolik, said on Wednesday. The professor takes part in a special conference of scientific and expert centers of BRICS countries.
“The setting up of this bank could promote an increase in trade and investment flows among BRICS nations,” the professor of the academy’s world economy department said. “This agency could become competitive among a growing number of similar regional and global organizations,” he stressed.
Lisovolik also marked that the emergence of a bank of that kind “could contribute to a growth of other developing markets”. “It would compete with the World Bank as well as with other regional financial institutions for a bigger role in providing investment resources and in raising the role of the BRICS nations in the world economy,” he continued.
“Possibly, the development bank of BRICS will offer competitive advantages to member nations from the point of view of crediting terms,” the professor marked.
Focusing on the functioning of the bank, he said “the World Bank could be taken as an example”. “We must not be afraid of the word ‘competition,’” he said. “The World Bank has a huge experience that can certainly be used from the point of view of decision taking, as well as from the point of view of a very important principle of conditionality of financial assistance” – that is, the terms, on which BRICS nations will be offering financial aid to third countries, he explained.
“Unlike global institutions, the BRICS group of nations has only five member countries, which gives a possibility to achieve unanimity of views, all the more as our financial and trade interests complement each other in many spheres,” Lisovolik said.
Once such a bank is set up, “coordination of BRICS member nations will grow from the point of view of their economic and financial policy, which will give a possibility to create joint financial resources for fight against crisis phenomena,” he explained.
The decision to begin discussions on the mechanism of setting up the BRICS development bank was taken at the fourth meeting of BRICS leaders held in New Delhi at the end of March 2012.