Shanghai looks set to be home to the Brics development bank despite fears by some members of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa bloc that Beijing could hijack the bank to serve its interests.
Russian presidential adviser Yuri Ushakov said late last week that the bank would be based in Shanghai, mainland China’s financial capital.
“The bank’s headquarters will be located in Shanghai. This is fixed in the documents,” Ushakov said.
Earlier, Russia’s finance minister said India was vying with China to host the new infrastructure lender.
In a further sign yesterday that an agreement had been reached on the headquarters, an Indian official played down the debate and said India’s top priority was to make sure that members of the institutions all had equal voting rights.
“Equitable shareholding is the principal goal for India,” the government official said.
Second on India’s list of concerns was giving the bank a name that would allow non-Brics nations to join in future, the official said.
Before leaving for this week’s summit in Brazil, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave his stamp of approval to the name “New Development Bank”. – Reuters