New Development Bank to expand to private sector next year

Kundapur Vaman Kamath, president of the New Development Bank, attends a session where New Development Bank holds its first green bond roadshow, in Shanghai, July 12, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

Loans to the private sector are expected to account for 30 percent of the bank's business, NDB President K.V. Kamath said at the second NDB-BRICS Business Council (BBC) Dialogue in Shanghai, held during the BBC annual meeting, in the run-up to the 9th BRICS Summit in Xiamen, Fujian province in East China.

The NDB was set up with an initial authorized capital of $100 billion after leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa agreed on its establishment during the 6th BRICS Summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, in 2014. It officially opened in Shanghai in 2015.

Currently, the bank only offers loans to governments or public programs.

Kamath said the bank has operated smoothly over the last two years, and will need support from both public and private sectors to achieve success.

The NDB approved loans totaling $1.55 billion last year to seven programs on sustainable development and is expected to offer loans of $2.5 billion this year, according to Zhou Qiangwu, director of the International Economics and Finance Institute, a Ministry of Finance think tank.