South Africa's financial capital Johannesburg is still in the running to be headquarters of a new development bank planned by the BRICS group of major emerging nations, a minister said Friday. Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies told a media briefing in Cape Town reports that a decision had already been made on the location of the bank were incorrect.
"There is no decision on the domicile of the bank," he said, rejecting suggestions that Shanghai had already won the right to host the institution. "It has been agreed by the heads of state that that will be a decision made by them," he said. The leaders of BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - are due to hold a summit in Brazil next week where they are expected to sign a deal to create the bank.
"South Africa has indicated our desire to offer Johannesburg as a host domicile for the bank," Davies said. The bank's financing of infrastructure development would not be limited to BRICS nations so a location in South Africa would give it "a huge advantage" in facilitating projects in other African countries, he said. But the Kremlin said Thursday that the group has already decided on Shanghai as the headquarter for the bank. The institution will be called "New Development Bank", with each BRICS member contributing $2 billion to its capital, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov also said earlier this week.
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