An Iranian official announced that the country is to join the New Development Bank (NDB), formerly known as BRICS Development Bank, in a bid to expand its economic ties with BRICS members.
Iran will hopefully join the NDB in order to develop its cooperation with the member states, Iran’s Deputy Economy Minister Mohammad Khazaee said on the sidelines of a Monday gathering of Iranian and Brazilian tradesmen in Tehran.
The bank has been established by Brazil and other BRICS member states (Russia, India, China, and South Africa) with an initial capitalization of $100 billion, Khazaee noted.
The New Development Bank is a multilateral development bank operated by the BRICS states as an alternative to the existing American and European-dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
The Agreement on the establishment of the New Development Bank was signed during the 6th BRICS Summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, on 15 July 2014, and the bank was officially launched at the last BRICS summit in the Russian city of Ufa earlier this year.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian official referred to Tehran’s accession to the international bank as a means to facilitate Iran-Brazil economic ties, which Khazaee said is currently too small.
Economic and trade ties between Iran and Brazil in different industrial, banking, and financial fields are so trivial that can be described as being at zero level, he noted, urging that the trade value between Tehran and Brasilia should be raised to $5 billion based on the plans.
The gathering where Khazaee made the remarks was also attended by Iranian Trade Minister Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh and Brazil’s Minister of Development, Industry, and Trade Armando Monteiro.
Heading a large trade delegation, the Brazilian minister arrived in Tehran earlier in the day for high-level talks on expansion of Tehran-Brasilia economic ties.