GOA: The development bank set up by the BRICS group of emerging economies will ramp up lending to $2.5 billion next year after making its first loans to back green projects, its president KV Kamath told Reuters.
The BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — agreed to create the New Development Bank (NDB) in July 2014 with initial authorized capital of $100 billion. The lender was officially launched a year later.
“The second year is scaling up, concentrating on people, getting all the skillsets in,” said Kamath, a veteran Indian banker appointed as the first head of the Shanghai-based NDB.
He was speaking on the fringes of a weekend BRICS summit hosted in the Indian resort of Goa by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The gathering seeks to add substance to the group that grew out of an acronym devised by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill back in 2003 that projected a long-term boom and global power shift in their favor.
With Russia, Brazil and South Africa on the economic skids and China slowing, the initial euphoria has faded, yet Kamath said the BRICS had much to gain by deepening their cooperation.
“The fact is that these countries, collectively, have for the last few years contributed to more than 50 percent of incremental economic wealth that has been generated globally,” said Kamath. “I don’t see that changing.”
The NDB, headquartered in Shanghai, will expand its staff to 300 over the next three years but run a tight operation that seeks to take quick decisions and transfer experience across all five BRICS member states.
It has already approved loans totalling $900 million to green projects in each member state. It has also started a renminbi-denominated borrowing program, issuing a 3 billion yuan ($450 million) bond.
Kamath, 68, said there was plenty of room for new lenders like the NDB and the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), in addition to established institutions like the World Bank.
“Infrastructure alone has needs globally of $1-1.5 trillion a year — all the multilateral banks put together can do maybe 15 percent of this,” said Kamath, who ran India’s ICICI Bank Ltd. from 1996 until 2009.
“The phrase I would like to use is cooperate and work together, rather than compete. I don’t see competition as a key challenge in this context.”
BRICS development bank to lend $2.5bn next year
BRICS development bank to lend $2.5bn next year
Closing Bell: Saudi main index closes in red at 10,414
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index closed lower on Wednesday, shedding 38.85 points, or 0.37 percent, to finish at 10,414.06.
Total trading turnover on the benchmark index reached SR3.46 billion ($920 million), with 123 stocks advancing and 134 declining.
The Kingdom’s parallel market Nomu also shed 41.61 points, or 0.18 percent, to close at 23,428.67.
The MSCI Tadawul Index edged down 0.45 percent to 1,368.36.
Arabian Drilling Co. was the best-performing stock on the main market, with its share price rising 6.8 percent to SR102.90.
Naqi Water Co. gained 4.30 percent to SR58.25, while Saudi Ground Services Co. advanced 3.78 percent to SR38.42.
Tihama Advertising, Public Relations and Marketing Co. saw its share price fall 4.95 percent to SR16.31.
AlAhli REIT Fund 1 also declined 3.53 percent to SR6.29.
On the announcements front, United Mining Industries Co., listed on the parallel market, said it has begun commercial production of gypsum board at its plant in Yanbu.
In a Tadawul statement, the company said the financial impact of the project’s commercial production will be reflected in the first quarter of 2026.
United Mining Industries Co.’s share price was unchanged, closing at SR42.54.
Dkhoun National Trading Co. said its shareholders approved the board’s recommendation to distribute interim dividends on a semi-annual or quarterly basis for 2025.
According to a Tadawul statement, shareholders also approved transferring the balance of the company’s statutory reserve, valued at SR2.43 million, to retained earnings.
Dkhoun National Trading Co.’s shares saw no trades and closed at SR65.
