WASHINGTON:
Amid sceptical noises about the future of the BRICS’ grouping given the slowing economies of the five emerging powers, India’s Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has raised hopes, saying the preparatory work for the Development Bank will be complete by the next summit in Brazil in 2014.
After attending a meeting of the finance ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa on the margins of the Spring Meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Chidambaram underlined the BRICS’ collective commitment to the BRICS bank.
“Before we go to Brazil for the next summit, that is one year from Durban, we hope to complete our homework,” he said at the Peterson Institute in Washington.
“We hope that we can complete our work in 12 months,” he said April 18 in the US capital. “It’s an ambitious agenda, but we are going to work hard on that,” he added.
The 5th BRICS summit culminated in a joint declaration that enunciated the BRICS’ leaders commitment to set up a BRICS Development Bank that will cater to the infrastructure needs of emerging powers as well as Africa and the larger global South. The Bank is being widely viewed as an attempt to create a rival to the West-dominated Bretton Woods twins and a potential game-changer in spurring reform of the global financial governance architecture.
There was some disappointment at the outcome of the March 26-27 Durban summit as many BRICS-watchers expected the details of the Bank to be announced, and not merely a reiteration of the viability of the Bank, which was proposed at the 2012 New Delhi summit. Crucial issues concerning the Bank, including the initial seed capital, the governance board and location of the headquarters of the bank, are still to be resolved.
The next twelve months could see intense politicking and negotiations as the five BRICS countries, which account for over a quarter of global GDP, try to influence the architecture of the bank to suit their own interests.
India has underlined that equity should be the overarching principle that should guide the form and the functioning of the Bank.
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