Criteria for new NDB members soon: K V Kamath

When asked for names of potential new members, he said question was a bit premature

The New Development Bank (NDB) will have more members and will make public the criteria for prospective members by June, K V Kamath, the multilateral agency’s chairman, said on Saturday. NDB board of directors has approved the terms, conditions and procedures for inclusion of new members.

The NDB — also known as the BRICS Bank —  is holding its second annual meeting for its member countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in New Delhi.

“The terms and conditions for membership have been approved by the board today. We will now work on the criteria. Clearly there ought to be countries which fit in aspirations with which the bank was set up,” Kamath said at a media briefing. “We expect by June, we should be able to publish the criteria for new membership on our website,” he added.

When asked for names of potential new members, Kamath said the question was a bit premature. He, however, added that the so-called ‘Global South’ or developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America were an important constituency for the the NDB. “We will also certainly look at the wider set of countries,” Kamath said.

Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that India has placed a request with the NDB to fund $2 billion for various projects. When asked for details, Kamath said India had presented to the NDB a pipeline of projects worth $2 billion which would be carried out over the next two years.

“My own view is that the pipeline they (India) have given to us is probably going to be done in the next year or year and half and we will also have to allow for the fact that all projects may not be ready for consideration,” Kamath said.

“For 2017, we plan to do 15 projects for a value of $2.5-3 billion. This will be in the area of infrastructure, especially sustainable infrastructure,” Kamath said, adding that the next annual meeting of the NDB will be held in Shanghai sometime next year.