BD may join BRICS-led NDB
BD may join BRICS-led NDB
Bangladesh is likely to join the New Development Bank (NDB) as it has decided to attend the preliminary negotiations with the lender for the admission soon, officials said Monday.
The China-based bank, which was formed under the auspices of BRICS countries, recently invited Bangladesh to start consultation with the Board of Directors for entering into the bank as a new member, officials at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) said.
Quoting a recent NDB letter to the Economic Relations Division (ERD), they said the bank offered more than 7.0 per cent of the total voting rights to a non-founding member country like Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, NDB president K. V. Kamath offered Finance Minister AMA Muhith on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-World Bank spring meeting in Washington in April this year to join at the pool of 15 new members, to be included soon at the lending agency.
"The NDB will include the new countries as the shareholders in addition to its founding five BRICS economies. It has offered Bangladesh as one of the 15 new members at the multilateral bank," an ERD official said.
The emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) formally set up the bank in July, 2015.
The initial authorised capital of the bank is US$100 billion divided into one million shares having a par value of $100,000 each.
The initial subscribed capital of the NDB is $50 billion divided into paid-in shares of $10 billion and callable shares $40 billion. The initial subscribed capital of the bank was equally distributed among the founding members.
According to the terms and conditions, the voting rights of the founding five BRICS countries has been proposed to reduce to below 55 per cent while for the non-borrowing countries to increase above 20 per cent and for each of the non-founding member nations to more than 7.0 per cent.
The NDB is currently headquartered in Oriental Financial Centre in Shanghai, China. The first regional office of the NDB will be opened in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Earlier, Bangladesh had been offered to join the bank in its initial stage of discussion in 2013-14. But the country had not joined due to lack of proper modalities and terms of condition for the other members outside the BRICS at the Bank that time, MoF officials said.
Development analysts said the BRICS states have initiated the NDB as a competitor of the United States and OECD countries-dominated World Bank and the IMF.
The NDB has already approved $2.0 billion worth of loans for five projects in its member countries.
Meanwhile, China and its ally countries have set up the $100 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Bangladesh had joined the multilateral lender as a member with holding some shares.