New Development Bank aims to achieve global presence: vice president

Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr., vice president of the New Development Bank(NDB), receives an interview with the Xinhuanet on the sidelines of the BRICS Business Forum in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, Sept. 3, 2017. (Xinhuanet/Huang He)

XIAMEN, Sept. 4 -- The New Development Bank(NDB) aims to achieve global presence and increase the say of the emerging countries in the world of finance, said a senior official with the bank.

Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr., vice president of the NDB, made the remarks during an exclusive interview with the Xinhuanet on the sidelines of the BRICS Business Forum in Xiamen, a coastal city in southeast China's Fujian Province on Sunday.

"The NDB is in the process of approving the entry of new members in a gradual way," Batista Jr. said. "The strategy that has been approved recently by the board of governors of the NDB foresees that by the year 2021 the NDB will have a global presence."

Founded by BRICS member states in 2014, the NDB opened in Shanghai in July 2015 and became fully operational in early 2016.

And it launched its Africa Regional Center (ARC) in South Africa’s Johannesburg in August this year.

"It will be quite challenging to achieve the goal of securing a global presence because the bank is set up exclusively by emerging markets," Batista Jr. said.

However, Batista Jr. pledges to strive forward to making it happen.

"Behold on us to prove that emerging countries can lead a bank that is professional, consistent, and capable of speaking differently in the world of finance," he said.

The achievements made by the bank gives Batista Jr. confidence in achieving this goal.

"The NDB has achieved significant progress since it launched business in Shanghai," Batista Jr. said. "The bank has approved 11 projects, most of which are for sustainable infrastructure development."

Altogether, the bank has 23 projects at various stages of preparation for 2017-2018, with a total lending amount of 6 billion dollars.

And according to its general strategy for 2017-2021, the bank will put about two-thirds of its loans into sustainable infrastructure development.

Batista Jr. said that the fundamental reason for the bank's achievements lies in the "systematic support" from China.

"China has made substantial efforts to support us," he said. "We are very lucky to have China as the host country of the NDB," he said.