ISTANBUL, February 10. /TASS/. Russia will ratify an agreement on the New Bank for Development set up by BRICS before the end of this month or at the beginning of March, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Monday as he spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a conference of G20 finance ministers and presidents of central banks.
"In the course of a meeting on the sidelines of the Financial G20, representatives of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) exchanged information on the progress of preparations for ratification of the agreement on the bank," Siluanov said. "We’re ahead of all other. It’s not ruled out that the ratification in Russia will be possible already in February or in March at the latest."
"Others will ratify the agreement later," he said.
Siluanov added that contributions to the bank’s capital had been factored into Russia’s federal budget for this year.
All in all, Russia was expected to contribute some $ 2 billion there over the next seven years.
He also said ‘current work’ was underway as regards the bank’s documents and the sides were engaged in processing technical details, like the procedural rules for the board of governors, the choice of candidates for the positions of President and Vice-President, and so on.
The Board of Governors of the BRICS bank will have its first meeting in the city of Ufa, western Urals.
Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa signed the agreement on instituting the New Bank for Development in July 2014 in Brazil. The document is to be ratified by the five countries’ parliaments.
An appropriate bill for ratification was submitted to Russia’s State Duma at the beginning of February.