NDB to fund technological innovation projects in 2017

The Dollar Business Bureau

The New Development Bank (NDB) has plans of providing financial and knowledge-based support to projects in the field of technological innovation, said Zhu Xian, Vice President, NDB, at a financing forum held at the Xiamen, China.

NDB is a multilateral lending institution, established in 2014 by BRICS, to fund infrastructure and other development needs of the member emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. BRICS is going to hold a summit at Xiamen in September 2017.

Headquartered in Shanghai, NDB was started with a fund of $100 billion, contributed in parts by member countries of BRICS. The multilateral lender gave out loans worth $1.5 billion in April 2016, which funded renewable energy initiatives and infrastructural developments in the BRICS nations. In 2017, NDB plans to dole out $2.5 billion.

This new-age international financing body was set up to counter other established institutions in the same arena, which are under the stronghold of developed economies. It is believed that the developing nations, despite contributing 35% to the world economy, do not have a commensurate power in decision making structures of international institutions founded post World War II. NDB was initiated with the objective of correcting this imbalance. More specifically, to fund ambitious next generation clean energy and infrastructure projects, which will back the growth engines of BRICS' members.

China, which has built a vast knowledge base in modern infrastructure projects, is willing to share its knowledge bank with other member nations of BRICS via NDB. In a first among most lenders, NDB will not only fund projects, but also disperse required knowledge necessary to bring them to fruition, thereby acting as a knowledge bank.

Zhu also said that BRICS members are going to need huge financing to upgrade their energy sector and industries, which the NDB and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) aim to provide.