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17:50, 17-Aug-2017
BRICS Development Bank opens first regional branch in South Africa
["china","north america","other","South Africa"]
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The African Regional Center of the New Development Bank (NDB) launched on Thursday in Johannesburg in South Africa.
The opening of NDB’s first regional branch is to strengthen the bank’s role in supporting Africa’s infrastructure and sustainable development.
The NDB, established in 2014 with a 100-billion-US dollar reserve currency pool and opened operations in 2015, has already made funding available for several developmental projects in the five BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
NDB has 23 projects at various stages of preparation with a total lending amount of 6 billion US dollars, of which seven are in Brazil, six are in India, five in China, three in South Africa and two in Russia. /CGTN Photo
NDB has 23 projects at various stages of preparation with a total lending amount of 6 billion US dollars, of which seven are in Brazil, six are in India, five in China, three in South Africa and two in Russia. /CGTN Photo
In 2016, the NDB granted 1.5 billion US dollars in loans to seven projects mostly involved in green energy or infrastructure.
The bank also sold its first 3 billion yuan worth of yuan-denominated bonds in China to fund clean energy projects in member states.
One of the projects is backed by South African electricity public utility Eskom, which recently received 180 million US dollars for renewable energy.
Currently 90% of South Africa’s power production is generated from coal, and the government plans to reduce and replace that with cleaner power sources.
Eskom received funding from the BRICS Development Bank on condition that it used the money for renewable energy projects, and is expected to cut carbon emissions by 1.3 million tonnes once complete.
More regional offices will be established in the coming years.
(CGTN's Sumitra Nydoo and Zhu Feng contributed to the story)
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