UFA, July 9. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he expected that the New Development Bank, which the BRICS grouping of the world’s five major emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) is establishing, will implement its first projects in 2016.

"The new bank with a capital of $100 billion will carry out large-scale development projects in the countries of our association. We expect the first of them to be launched already next year," Putin said at an enlarged meeting of the BRICS leaders.

Companies from BRICS member states "are ready to establish joint ventures, build up mutual investment and commodity flows," the Russian president said.

The Russian president said the BRICS summit should "study in detail the actual issues of the BRICS activity in the economic sphere."

Putin highlighted the indicators evidencing the economic might of the BRICS countries.

Specifically, BRICS accounts for about 30% of global GDP, a third of the world’s industrial output and a half of food production.

"This is a huge consumer market," the Russian president said.

Close economic cooperation gives BRICS countries new opportunities. For example, their internal commodity trade, foreign investment and capital investment are growing. The launch of a pool of foreign exchange reserves is also one of BRICS’ achievements, Putin said.