Russia’s Far East Development Fund plans to cooperate with BRICS Bank - General Director

MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/. The Far East and Baikal Region Development Fund plans to cooperate with the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) within the framework of investment projects in Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District, General Director of the Fund Alexei Chekunkov said on Wednesday at the press conference in TASS. "We proactively plan to work and meet them already at the setup stage," Chekunkov said. The BRICS New Development Bank may change the global landscape, Chekunkov said. "This capital will be visible everywhere, from Beijing to Ashkhabad and all over the Far East," he added. However, the bank’s capital will hardly influence on the development trajectory of the fund, the general director said. "We are a too small celestial body that it [BRICS Bank - TASS] changes our development trajectory. We have 15 bln rubles ($262.9 mln), the BRICS Bank has $50 bln," Chekunkov said. TASS reported earlier investment projects’ screening for the BRICS NBD will start by the end of this year. The agreement on establishing the BRICS New Development Bank was signed on July 15, 2014 in Brazil’s Fortaleza. The Shanghai-headquartered bank has been set up to finance infrastructural projects and projects for sustainable development in BRICS and other developing countries. The bank will have a starting capital of $50 billion and the capital may be later increased to $100 billion. The first meeting of the Board of Governors of NDB took place on July 7 in Moscow. Read more