Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman lauds performance of NDB

New Delhi [India], May 27 (ANI): Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday attended the Special Board of Governors meeting of the New Development Bank (NDB) and commended the 'contribution of the bank in funding infrastructure development, which has positively impacted the development agenda of the member countries including India.'
"Within a short span of time, the NDB has approved 55 projects of member countries for an amount of $16.6 billion, which is quite a remarkable achievement," said Sitharaman.
She also mentioned the bank has successfully created a niche for itself and proudly stands shoulder to shoulder with the peer MDBs.
According to the statement, the Finance Minister appreciated KV Kamath, outgoing president of NDB for his stellar stewardship in very quickly giving shape to the vision stated by the BRICS leaders in 2014.
The swift response to COVID-19 through the launch of the COVID-19 Emergency Programme Loan product will be remembered as one of his contributions, she said.
The Finance Minister also congratulated newly-elected president Marcos Troyjo from Brazil and newly-appointed Vice President and CRO Anil Kishora from India.
Sitharaman remarked that she has great expectations from new leadership in continuing this momentum forward and taking the NDB to the next level in terms of lending performance to members, transparency, international credibility and effectively achieving the NDB mandate.
She suggested that the focus should also be given to achieve the twin objective of preserving BRICS values and growing NDB into a global development institution. (ANI)