Rousseff Commends New Development Bank Mechanism

By Xinhua 

July 3, 2023

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will stand for re-election in October

The financial governance mechanism of the BRICS-led New Development Bank (NDB) is “very fair,” Dilma Rousseff, the bank’s president, has said.

The former Brazilian president said at the 11th World Peace Forum that no member has more financial resources than others in the BRICS bank. She explained that since the establishment of the bank, the shares of the five BRICS nations have been the same, about 19 percent each, and when new countries join, shares of all countries will be equally reduced.

Rousseff said that “each country’s share in the BRICS bank is absolutely fair,” denying claims that the bank has been controlled or influenced by some countries at the Q&A session.

She said the rotation mechanism ensures fairness. Currently Brazil holds the rotating presidency of the NDB, and another member country will take over in July 2025.

When asked about the BRICS membership expanding at the upcoming summit in South Africa, she refused to give names of new applicant countries, saying the BRICS mechanism is different from that of the NDB.

Headquartered in Shanghai, the NDB was established in 2015 by the BRICS nations, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The bank started expanding its membership in 2021 with Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay and Egypt as new members, marking substantial progress in the bank’s membership expansion and beginning to move towards the direction of a global multilateral development bank.

The 11th World Peace Forum is being held at Tsinghua University with this year’s theme being “Stabilizing an Unstable World through Consensus and Cooperation. More than 400 delegates, including former foreign political dignitaries, diplomatic envoys from various countries in China, experts, and scholars attended the event.