(Yicai Global) April 14 -- Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attended the inauguration ceremony for the newly elected president of the New Development Bank, the multilateral lender set up by the BRICS nations, during his state visit to China.

Lula discussed the NDB’s ongoing and potential projects in Brazil with the bank’s senior management, including renewable and clean energy, modern transport infrastructure and urban mobility, and water and sanitation efficiency, during the ceremony at the NDB’s headquarters in Shanghai yesterday.

On March 24, the NDB announced that Dilma Vana Rousseff, a former president of Brazil, had been elected to head the lender, replacing Marcus Troyjo effective immediately.

“As a former president of Brazil, I know the importance of multilateral banks’ support to developing countries, particularly NDB, in addressing their economic, social, and environmental needs,” Rousseff said yesterday. “Becoming the president of NDB is undoubtedly a great opportunity to do more for the BRICS, emerging markets and developing countries, and my own country Brazil.”

Providing local currency financing is one of the most important tasks for the NDB. As of the end of the first quarter of this year, the financing amount offered by the bank in the domestic currency of its members accounted for 21.5 percent of the total investment.

In May last year, the NDB released a strategy for the period until 2026 to stress the importance of local currency financing. The bank will offer 30 percent of its investment in the form of local currency and conduct co-financing with other multilateral development banks on 20 percent of the projects, NDB Vice President Zhou Qiangwu told Yicai Global at the time.

Founded in 2015, NDB was originally called the BRICS Development Bank, or BRICS Bank, after its founders -- Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Bangladesh, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Uruguay joined the bank in 2021. NDB will continue to bring in new members, the lender told Yicai Global.

Since its establishment, the NDB has approved 98 projects with a total investment of around USD33.2 billion, including 22 in Brazil with commitments of about USD6.2 billion and 24 Chinese projects worth in the region of USD9 billion.

Editor: Futura Costaglione