Pact signed to headquarter Brics bank in Shanghai

The New Development Bank of the five Brics nations on Saturday signed an agreement with the Chinese government to locate its headquarters in this Chinese city.

"The agreements related to our headquarters in Shanghai are a landmark step in our nascent journey as a development bank. With this, we are ready for business and we look forward to building an institution of repute in course of time," bank president K.V. Kamath said in a statement.

Kamath, former head of the India's largest private bank ICICI Bank Ltd, is the first president of the multilateral bank of Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) set up on July 7, 2015 in Moscow.

"The agreement governs the establishment of the bank's headquarters in China and makes provision for the requisite immunities, privileges and other facilities," the statement said.

Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi and Kamath signed the agreement on behalf of the government and the bank, while Shanghai municipal people's government mayor Yang Xiong and Kamath signed a memorandum on arrangements for setting up the bank's headquarters in the city.

As an alternative to the American and European-led World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), the new bank will fund infrastructure and development projects in Brics and other emerging and developing countries.

The bank's initial subscribed capital is fixed at $50 billion, while the total paid-in capital will be $10 billion.

"The bank has received project proposals from all Brics countries and the appraisal of the first set of projects is scheduled for April," the statement added.

The bank's founding members have infused their capital of $1 billion each as their initial contribution.

Each member country holds equal number of shares and voting rights without any veto power.