BRICS to establish development bank, reserve arrangement

Chinese President Xi Jinping (2nd R) poses for a group photo with Russian President Vladimir Putin (1st L), Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (2nd L), Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (C), and South African President Jacob Zuma during the sixth BRICS summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, July 15, 2014. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)

The emerging-market bloc of BRICS on Tuesday announced plans to establish a development bank and a contingent reserve arrangement (CRA).[Special coverage]

The five members of the group -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- laid out the designs of the New Development Bank (NDB) and the CRA in a declaration released following their sixth summit in this Brazilian city.

The NDB, to be headquartered in Shanghai, will have an initial authorized capital of 100 billion U.S. dollars, and its initial subscribed capital of 50 billion dollars will be equally shared among founding members, according to the Fortaleza Declaration.

The five countries decided that the first chair of the Board of Governors shall be from Russia, the first chair of the Board of Directors from Brazil, and the first president of the bank from India.

They also agreed to set up an African regional center of the NDB in South Africa, which will be established concurrently with the headquarters.

The bank, said the declaration, is aimed at "mobilizing resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging and developing economies."

"Based on sound banking principles, the NDB will strengthen the cooperation among our countries and will supplement the efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global development, thus contributing to our collective commitments for achieving the goal of strong, sustainable and balanced growth," said the document.