Russia's office of BRICS New Development Bank will be launched after 2019 - finance ministry

MOSCOW, August 17. /TASS/. The Regional Center of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) will be launched in Russia in 2019 or 2020, head of the international financial relations department at the Finance Ministry Andrei Bokarev told TASS. "There is a political arrangement that the first office (will be launched - TASS) in South Africa, the second - in Brazil, and the third - in Russia," he said. "We don’t expect it in Russia earlier than in 2019, most probably in 2020," Bokarev said, adding that "it is necessary to develop a project basis" for setting up the local office. On Wednesday, the African Regional Centre of the BRICS NDB was officially launched in Johannesburg. As reported earlier Russia will contribute up to $1.5 mln to the New Development Bank in 2017-2019. The money will be sent from the federal budget as contributions to the financial organization for the purpose of financing the Technical Assistance Fund for Preparation of Projects. The plan is to contribute up to $500,000 annually. The agreement on establishing the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) with $100 bln worth of starting capital was reached on July 15, 2014 in Brazil’s Fortaleza. The Shanghai-headquartered bank has been set up to finance infrastructure projects and projects for sustainable development of BRICS and other developing countries. Earlier officials with Russia’s Finance Ministry noted that creation of a special fund in the NDB to finance the preparation of feasibility studies of projects would help submit more Russian projects for its consideration. BRICS is an informal association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The group was founded in June 2006 at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and was known as BRIC prior to inclusion of South Africa in 2009. Read more