BRICS New Development Bank will focus on its own project financing, may consider co-financing selectively

SHANGHAI, January 12. /TASS/. BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) plans to focus on financing projects without assistance from other credit institutions, but it may also selectively consider options of co-financing with other development banks, NDP President Kundapur Vaman Kamath said in an interview with TASS. "We have started the process of signing memoranda of understanding with other multilateral development banks (MDBs), who have in the past been co-financing with other MDBs. Having said that, our initial focus is going to be doing projects ourselves and the reason is that this will allow us to learn and improve our own skills," Kamath said. "Selectively, we will look at co-financing, but that is not going to be a significant part of our business. Areas that we will co-finance will be all of our areas of operations, which are of importance to us. Our focus is infrastructure and sustainable development. Across this, every project is something we look at if it is presented to us." he said. Previously, NDB announced plans to issue bonds in national currencies of the bank’s member-states. In particular the Bank planned to issue bonds in Russia. When asked if these plans are still relevant, NDB President said: "We indeed have plans to access local markets in all our member countries and that will include Russia also. As we understand it, access to the market would possibly require an international rating. If we can access a market with a local rating, than we will certainly explore it. I think, by June-July we should be firming up our plans to access local currency markets, including Russia." Read more