India likely to get first presidency of BRICS Development Bank

New Delhi: India is likely to get first presidency of BRICS Development Bank. The BRICS summit commenced in Brazil on Tuesday amid an understanding that the five member nations will have equal shareholding in the proposed $50 billion BRICS Development Bank.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin tweeted, "BRICS Bank 1st CEO- President- from India."

The bank's headquarters is likely to be located in Shanghai, China's financial hub, although India was pressing for New Delhi.

The summit is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first multilateral engagement. He has favoured an open, rule-based, international trading regime which is critical for global economic growth and said the BRICS nations should ensure that the new development bank and contingent reserve arrangement should establish a new model.

Addressing the opening session of the sixth BRICS summit, he said the new trading regime must address aspirations of developing world and accommodate the need of the most vulnerable sections of society especially in areas such as food security.

"The first BRICS Summit took place in the middle of a global economic crisis. BRICS was a ray of hope. It supplemented existing international institutions with newer ideas and mechanisms," Modi said at the summit attended by Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China, Jacob Zuma of South Africa and Dilma Rousseff of Brazil.

The day-long summit began with a private working session which will be followed by a working lunch and a preliminary session. A Fortaleza Declaration containing the outcome of the meeting is expected to be issued at the end of it.

Working behind the scenes, senior officials from member countries had prepared the ground for their leaders to agree on details of the bank which will finance infrastructure and development projects in BRICS nations.

Indian sources said that there was an understanding that each country would have a shareholding of $10 billion. India had been insisting that the shareholding should be equal so that no one country dominates as was the case of institutions like the World Bank and the IMF where the US and Japan enjoy considerable clout.

(With additional information from PTI)