BRICS to hit new heights with Development Bank, currency reserve pool - Brazil’s president

RIO DE JANEIRO. July 8. /TASS/. The New Development Bank and a pool of foreign exchange reserves, which the BRICS grouping is creating, will help propel this association of the world’s major emerging economies to a new level, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff told TASS on Wednesday. Rousseff was interviewed by TASS news agency ahead of her trip to Russia to take part in a summit of the BRICS association comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The summit is opening in the Urals city of Ufa on Wednesday. "The establishment of the New Development Bank means a qualitative leap forward for BRICS, an important contribution towards meeting the requirements of developing countries for investment in infrastructure," Rousseff said. According to the Brazilian president, the pool of foreign exchange reserves known as the Contingent Reserve Arrangement "demonstrates the possibilities of BRICS countries to render mutual support in the event of difficulties with balances of payments." "The institutions established by BRICS open new channels for our cooperation with a better understanding of development priorities in various regions, profound awareness of sustainable development challenges at the current important stage of discussing the agenda in this area for a period after 2015," the Brazilian president said. The Economic Partnership Strategy until 2020, which the BRICS summit will discuss, "opens new prospects for strengthening the relations among the group’s five countries in the sphere of the economy, trade and finances" because it deals with such issues as "increasing and diversifying trade flows, facilitating trade, boosting investments, and also implementing various projects in the sphere of agriculture, science, technologies, innovations and education," the Brazilian president said. Such cooperation within BRICS will help improve the practice of holding traditional meetings with "third countries and regions," which are organized by a summit host country, the Brazilian president said. Read more