​BRICS summit in Russia to launch New Development Bank & currency pool - Putin

Russia expects to launch the $100-billion BRICS New Development Bank along with a currency reserve pool worth another $100 billion at the July summit in Ufa, said Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We expect to reach agreement in Ufa on the launch of practical operations of the BRICS Bank and a pool of currency reserves," Putin said on Thursday at a ceremony to receive the credentials of ambassadors of foreign states, TASS reports.

Putin recalled that the BRICS was created in 2006 under Russia’s initiative, and that the group "has already become an influential factor in world policy and economy."

"Russia is interested in further intensifying cooperation between the BRICS countries and developing new interaction mechanisms, including in the financial and economic sphere," he said.

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An additional impulse would be given in the next days "to the development of inter-parliamentary relations, humanitarian and information cooperation, the intensification of contacts between trade unions and non-governmental organizations," he added.

The agreement on the establishment of the New Development bank was signed by the BRICS countries in July 2014. The bank seen as rival to the existing US-led institutions, the IMF and World Bank, will finance infrastructure projects and ensure the sustainable development of the group and other developing countries.

President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce Sergey Katyrin took over the chairmanship of a business council of BRICS, an economic association made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, on April 1.

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The reserve currencies pool worth $100 billion is intended to protect national currencies from volatility in global markets and will allow the five BRICS member states to depend less on fluctuations in the world economy, bypass market volatility and other negative factors.

The upcoming BRICS Summit is to be held in the Russian city of Ufa on 8-9 July. The countries are expected to discuss the IMF reform that should give a louder voice to developing countries in decision-making, and the possibility of creating an independent BRICS rating agency. Russia was chosen to assume the BRICS rotating leadership in April 2015.