The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) hopes to issue loans of up to 2.5 billion U.S. dollars to about 15 projects next year, a senior executive said Thursday.

Zhu Xian, NDB vice president, said the bank had approved loans of 1.5 billion U.S. dollars for seven projects in 2016.

Earlier this week, the NDB board of directors announced it had issued loans to two new projects in China and India.

An offshore wind power project, located in east China's Pinghai Bay, Putian City, Fujian Province, will receive a 2-billion-yuan (280 million U.S. dollars) sovereign loan from the bank.

The NDB also provided India with a sovereign project loan of 350 million dollars to the Madhya Pradesh Major District Roads Project.

"We want to fund projects that are creative and bring benefits to the local people and environment, like the two we just approved," Zhu said.

NDB President K.V. Kamath said the bank was committed to infrastructure construction projects and sustainable development in its member states.

The bank, which formally opened in July last year in Shanghai, approved its first package of loans worth 811 million U.S. dollars in April.