BRICS Summit: PM Modi calls for early opening of New Development Bank's regional office in India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday urged for the early opening of the New Development Bank's regional office in India and offered full backing to the multilateral finance institution in promoting global growth.

Addressing the Dialogue with BRICS Business Council and New Development Bank, Prime Minister Modi urged the BRICS Business Council to create a roadmap to achieve the USD 500 billion intra-BRICS trade target by the next summit.

"Identification of economic complementarities among us will be important in this effort," he said.

"I request that the work of establishing the regional office of the NDB in India should be completed soon. This will give a boost to projects in our priority areas," Modi said as he offered full backing to the multilateral finance institution in promoting global growth.

According to the BRICS joint statement, the five countries look forward to the opening of the two remaining NDB Regional Offices in Russia and India in 2020.

"Building upon the core functions of the bank's headquarters, its Regional Offices shall contribute to expanding its operations and striving for a more robust project portfolio for all member countries," it said.

They also acknowledged the progress made by the NDB towards expanding its membership, the statement said, adding that the expansion of the NDB membership will strengthen the bank's role as a global development finance institution and further contribute to the mobilisation of resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects.

Prime Minister Modi, while addressing the dialogue, also requested BRICS countries and the NDB to join the global Coalition for Disaster-Resilient Infrastructure.

"The partnership agreement between New Development Bank and BRICS Business Council will be useful for both the institutions.

"I will conclude by saying that our dream of strengthening BRICS economic cooperation can be realised only with the full cooperation of Council and the NDB," the Prime Minister said.

Shanghai-headquartered New Development Bank (NDB), formerly referred to as the BRICS Development Bank, is a multilateral development bank established by the BRICS states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) with an initial authorised capital of the bank is USD 100 billion.

The idea for setting up the NDB was proposed by India at the 4th BRICS summit in 2012 held in New Delhi. Its creation of the main theme of the meeting.