Brazil: BRICS bank pillars could be ready next year

The statutes of the new development bank planned by the BRICS group of five emerging powers could be ready next year, Brazil's foreign minister said here Tuesday. "We made good progress during the last meeting in Durban and the expectation is that in the 2014 meeting in Brazil, enough progress has been made to conclude the statutes of the bank," Antonio Patriota told reporters. He made the remarks after discussing the issue here with his South African counterpart Maite Nkoana-Mashabane. At their March summit in the South African city of Durban, leaders of the BRICS -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- failed to launch the much-anticipated bank. Instead of a $50 billion fund, the leaders agreed only that the initial capital contribution would be "substantial and sufficient for the bank to be effective." "There was an agreement to establish such a bank. Our ministries of finance are busy with the final modalities because the viability has been checked, even economists from the World Bank have come out to say there is space for such a bank," Nkoana-Mashabane said here. The proposed bank is meant to rival Western-dominated institutions like the World Bank. Key sticking points included how projects would be distributed and where the bank would be based.