AIIB and NDB (BRICS Bank) Plan to Fund Projects Jointly

Speaking a day before the inauguration of the Eastern Economic Forum at Vladivostok, New Development Bank (NDB, also known as the BRICS Bank) Vice President Zhu Xian said: “We established good relations with the AIIB. Also we have already started discussion of possible forms of cooperation. Firstly, we plan to co-finance some projects. Secondly, we have already signed the relevant agreement on cooperation. At the moment, many investment projects are in need of financing. That’s why we should not compete, but complement each other,” Tass reported Thursday.

Both the AIIB and NDB are headquartered in China, and were set up to partner-finance projects that would fill in the huge infrastructure gap that has paralyzed development in Eurasia,  if not around the world. Nominally speaking, the NDB focuses on the five BRICS countries while the AIIB focuses on Asian countries. Tass also reported Zhu saying, “I think we complement each other; also a lot of investment projects lack finance….  We want to be the financial institution of the 21st century, but not to be a copy of the traditional financial institution,” he added, referring to the IMF and World Bank.

While the joint financing projects have not been finalized yet, Zhu Xian said the NDB “experts are studying the possibility of funding road construction projects in Russia.” “A number of Russian projects attracted our attention, especially in the transport sector,” Zhu added, according to Tass. In addition, Zhu told Sputnik today:“We have plans in other national bond markets, including Russia. We are already in discussions with the Russian government on the possibilities of issuing ruble-based bonds in Russia as well.”