The New Development Bank (NDB), set up by the BRICS group of emerging economies, says it aims to make about $5 billion in loans available to BRICS+ countries this year – with India and China already receiving loans.
Its vice president, Zhou Qiangwu, has told Reuters that during the Covid-19 pandemic, business was “somewhat” affected, but the situation has returned back to normal.
Zhou was speaking on the sidelines of the annual Boao Forum in China.
He did not elaborate on how the bank may have been off track, but said China and India have received slightly more investment from the bank than other members.
Headquartered in Shanghai, the NDB was set up in 2015 by the BRICS countries.
Zhou also says he expected China’s economy to grow about 5% this year, in line with the government’s target.
This comes with reports that China’s Jiangsu Province, an economic powerhouse, has seen foreign trade with BRICS nations soar to a record 102.22 billion yuan (about 14.4 billion U.S. dollars) in the first two months of this year.
This marks an increase of 36 percent year on year.
Figures from Nanjing Customs show that the value of trade between Jiangsu and India and Jiangsu and Brazil reached 25.31 billion yuan and 23.87 billion yuan, respectively over this period.
The figures also reveal that Jiangsu made progress in exporting the three major tech-intensive green products – or the “new three”.
These are new energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic products, which are gaining popularity in the BRICS emerging markets.
Electric vehicles have proven popular in many countries and governments are looking at green alternatives.
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