FORTALEZA, July 15 (RIA Novosti), Daria Chernyshova - BRICS countries will launch an infrastructure fund that would help foster development of roads, airports, ports and other infrastructure projects in the five nations, Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said Tuesday on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Brazil.
"Today, Russian Direct Investment Fund [presents] an initiative to create infrastructure fund for BRICS, that would invest in infrastructure projects in all of the BRICS nations," Dmitriev told journalists in Fortaleza.
"We believe that it’s a very important initiative, because BRICS nations want infrastructure development and they want to make sure that infrastructure grows. So the BRICS infrastructure fund is a good idea to help [with] this," he added.
Dmitriev also said that the BRICS Business Council has discussed the idea and will set up a separate group to finalize the creation of the fund within a year, so that this Russian initiative is launched at the next BRICS summit in Ufa, Russia.
"We believe that jointly the BRICS countries can invest in infrastructure with infrastructure fund," Dmitriev said, adding that the fund will become just one of the platforms facilitating infrastructure development.
He also expressed hope that the agreement on the New Development Bank (NDB) will be signed today.
The New Development Bank is to focus on infrastructure projects in emerging economies and is open to adding new members, while the BRICS share is required to be at least 55 percent.
The bank is to rival Western-centric financial institutions such as the World Bank. The establishment of the bank is intended to help BRICS countries free themselves, as well as other developing nations, from Washington’s dominance, as infrastructure loans should be allocated with fewer restrictions and delays.
