BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) must concentrate on enabling private sectors to drive economic progress, Alasdair Macleod, an independent economist specializing in money and credit, told Sputnik.
The NDB can introduce a "tremendous scale of opportunities" to economies of BRICS members, which undoubtedly "have enormous growth potential," according to Macleod.
"An emphasis on infrastructure - road, rail, electricity, shipping and communications, including data - with local private sector partners will allow the NDB to spearhead a new industrial revolution," he pointed out.
"This must be done on a commercial basis, and I would hope the NDB will not just make credit available, but also act as a ‘venture capitalist’, taking equity stakes as part of a financing package and introducing businesses to each other proactively across the bank’s network. This will require a network of local offices," the economist concluded.
In an address to the BRICS Business Forum in Moscow on September 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the NDB should become one of the main investors in major technological and infrastructural projects both within BRICS, and the Global South as a whole.
NDB President Dilma Rousseff earlier announced plans to transform NDB into "an important bank" for developing countries and emerging markets. "Our focus has to be: a bank made by developing countries for themselves," she emphasized.