BRICS Development Bank
Pretoria – The Government of Jamaica has come up in support of the establishment of the BRICS-led Developmental Bank.
Jamaican Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Arnold Joseph Nicholson, told the Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies during their bilateral meeting in Jamaica on Friday that a BRICS Bank was good for Jamaica and that his country was in support of it.
South Africa will host the fifth BRICS Summit in March next year and among the key decisions expected to come out of the summit is the formation of a BRICS Development Bank.
BRICS is an acronym for the grouping of the emerging economies, which include Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The two ministers agreed that the BRICS Bank should play a role in mobilising resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other Emerging Economies and Developing Countries (EMDC).
They also said that the Bank was not intended to replace the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. According to them, the BRICS-led Developmental Bank will complement the two institutions.
Minister Davies said that the importance of South Africa’s membership to BRICS was not just for South Africa, but for the African continent and emerging economies.
Nicholson added that Jamaica was proud to be associated with South Africa and to see that the Caribbean economic bloc, the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom) was included in the South African agenda.
Jamaica is a member of Caricom, which consists of 15 countries that are located in the Caribbean Sea.
“Next year you are going to assume the chairperson of BRICS and it seems to me you are not only thinking of South Africa in a traditional way of doing things. You are also looking for an expansion of opportunities and diversifying trade. We are pleased to see that Jamaica and Caricom are within that category of opportunities,” said Minister Nicholson.
Minister Davies is in Jamaica on a two-day visit to discuss trade relations between the two countries. The two ministers also agreed that there would be a South African business delegation to Jamaica sometime next year.
Davies’s visit to Jamaica follows President Jacob Zuma’s state visit in August this year. – SAnews.gov.za
