New Development Bank to lend 15 Billion USD to boost Economies
The BRICS Foreign Ministers’ meeting was held virtually recently. Allocation of 15 billion USD for boosting economies and setting up of a vaccine R&D centre were discussed.
BRICS
BRICS is an economic and political cooperative organisation consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It was established as BRIC (excluding South Africa) in 2009 and it became BRICS in 2010. The grouping represents 42% of the global population. The BRICS is currently chaired by Russia.
New Development Bank
New Development Bank is a multilateral lending organisation operated by the BRICS members. It was formerly known as the BRICS Development Bank. It is headquartered in Shanghai in China. It mainly lends for infrastructure projects. Recently, it was announced that the NDB could allocate up to 15 billion USD to help boost the members’ economies.
Vaccine R&D Centre
During the recent Foreign Ministers’ meeting, the BRICS Vaccine Research and Development Centre was discussed. The concept was first introduced in July 2018, at the 10th edition of BRICS Summit in Johannesburg. After that, the idea had seen little development. The leaders are now looking at it afresh as a tool for combating the COVID-19 pandemic and future such health crises.
