New Delhi, July 21 (KNN) The First Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the BRICS New Development Bank was held yesterday at Shanghai, China.

The New Development Bank (NDB) has completed one year since its establishment in 2015. Since its establishment, the policies of operations have been put in place, projects for all five member countries have been approved and the Bank has completed an issuance of Green Bonds.

During the meeting of the Board of Governors of the NDB, it was decided that India will be the Chair of the Board of Governors of the Bank and the second Annual meetings of NDB will be held in India in 2017.

Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs represented the Finance Minister of India and delivered the Governor’s Statement on his behalf.

Reading out the Governor’s Statement, Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, said, “During the year, policies have been put in place and approvals have been given for financing renewable energy projects. We congratulate President Kamath and the management team for steering the Bank with speed, skill and strategy.

The first Annual Meeting also marks the commencement of the phase of immense work for realization of NDB’s vision of providing catalytic resources for sustainable infrastructure to the founder members and other emerging and developing economies,” he added.

He said, “We have taken several initiatives to boost investment climate and improve the ease of doing business. National Infrastructure Investment Fund has been set-up to stimulate investment in Infrastructure. Likewise, Insolvency and Bankruptcy code 2016 has been passed by the Parliament to deal with insolvency of corporate, individuals, partnerships and other entities. Initiatives such as Make in India, Start-up India, and Skill India are focused at encouraging innovations, entrepreneurship and job creation. Our government has launched a massive financial inclusion programme. More than 200 million bank accounts have been opened for the unbanked persons. We are now using Aadhaar, a unique identification system with statutory backing, as backbone for targeted delivery of financial and other subsidies, benefits and service.”

In such a scenario, investments in sustainable infrastructure play a catalytic role in anchoring a more resilient recovery, improving potential growth and fostering inclusive growth in the countries. This is also the niche area of focus of the New Development Bank.

The Second Annual meeting of the New Development Bank will be held in India in 2017 and India will Chair the Board of Governors of NDB next year. (With PIB Inputs)