THE New Development Bank, sometimes referred to as “NDB” or “the BRICS Bank” and the South African government hosted the Ninth Annual Meeting of the NDB Board of Governors in Cape Town this week.
The strategic meeting, held on Thursday and Friday, was particularly of vital importance in that it took place amid the rapidly-changing international world order.
The geopolitical changes currently sweeping through the globe include a process better-known as “de-dollarisation”, where BRICS member-states (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) have resolved to no longer use the United States currency when conducting trade and business among themselves.
This impactful isolation of the US dollar will naturally affect the US economy. The effect might not be felt immediately, but the psychological self-emancipation of the BRICS-Plus nations mark a break with a unipolar world order dominated by the thus far only surviving superpower, the US.
This year marks a significant milestone in the history of the NDB. It is the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Agreement on the New Development Bank.
Over the past decade, the NDB has achieved important strategic objectives. For instance, it has opened four regional offices and centres in all founding member countries of the strategic bloc.
The Bank has since expanded its membership – with the addition of Bangladesh, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. It has approved over $30 billion in project financing in its member countries.
The NDB has targeted, in its General Strategy 2022-2026, to direct 40% of its total project financing contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation, including energy transition. It hopes to work together with private partners and other national and multilateral developments banks in the co-financing of projects.
Reflecting on what has already been accomplished, but, more importantly, on what can still be achieved, the theme for the Ninth Annual Meeting was coined as follows: “Investing in a Sustainable Future.”
DIRCO officials involved in the organisation of the meeting put it thus: “We hope to provide a platform for the discussion and deliberation on how the NDB, in collaboration with national governments, the private sector, civil society and other multilateral development banks, can further strengthen its capacity to promote sustainable projects in emerging markets and developing countries.”
In addition to the opening ceremony, where the Ministers of Finance of the NDB member countries shared the stage as they thrashed out a future characterised by the notion of a shared future, it was impossible to miss the wind of change blowing from Cape Town throughout the world.
The NDB Flagship Governors Seminar and other seminars and workshops were held behind the curtain. This was so that they could “enable a productive exchange of knowledge, lessons and ideas on several inter-related aspects of the broad theme of Investing in a Sustainable Future”.
The Ninth Annual Meeting brought together Ministers from NDB member countries, as well as other national and local government representatives, leaders of multilateral and national development institutions, distinguished scholars, prominent commercial bankers, business leaders and representatives of civil society organisations.
Resolutions adopted during the Cape Town meeting will be shared during the BRICS Summit in October, which is scheduled to take place in Russia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has revealed that at least 40 countries have applied to join BRICS, and a decision on the applications will be taken by the heads of state during the summit.
Initially a strategic bloc of only five countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the bloc was expanded during the 2023 BRICS IV in Sandton, South Africa.
Additional members became Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran, UAE and Saudi Arabia, although their full membership is still in the process of finalisation. Argentina was also accepted into the bloc. However, when the government lost elections soon afterwards, the new regime aligned to the US pulled out.
BRICS Bank is also regarded as a game-changer in the lending sphere. It is seen as a direct competitor to the US-led World Bank and the IMF. It is impossible to dissociate politics from economics. They are a powerful intersection of geopolitical control and influence.
The emergence of a global lending institution in the form of the NDB that is aligned to the Global South is likely to scupper the enduring domination of the West in global affairs.
BRICS and the NDB always shy away from any talk that could seem confrontational against the West, or their institutions. However, there can be no doubt that in spite the apparently slow start to the BRICS and the NDB, the changes currently underway will be far-reaching and felt across every international institution, including the UN, WTO and WHO, among others.
The NDB stands at the centre of the reconfiguration of world politics and global finance system. Soon, rather than later, the role of the NDB will become much clearer a cut-away from the use of the US dollar gains global traction.
The effect of this week’s Cape Town meeting of NDB will surely be known when resolutions are laid bare at the October summit of BRICS in Russia, where more than fifty heads of state from across the Global South will be in attendance.
* Abbey Makoe is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief: Global South Media Network