Algeria has officially been approved for membership in BRICS’s New Development Bank (NDB), a significant milestone announced during the ninth annual meeting of the bank’s Board of Governors in Cape Town, South Africa at the weekend.
The admission of Algeria was confirmed by NDB president Dilma Rousseff who said the North African country had met the requirements for joining the financial institution.
“We have a process to authorise new members to the bank… Algeria was authorised to become a new member of the bank,” the former Brazilian president said on the sidelines of NDB’s annual general meeting in Cape Town at the weekend.
Algeria’s finance ministry welcomed the decision, describing it as a “major step in its process of (the country’s) integration into the global financial system.”
BRICS is the acronym for an emerging-market cooperative mechanism that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Established in 2015 by BRICS countries and headquartered in Shanghai, the NDB is a multilateral development bank aimed at mobilising resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging market economies as well as developing countries.
The NDB has seen recent expansions, welcoming Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt in 2021.
The bank’s mission is to provide an alternative to traditional international financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, offering member countries a platform to collaborate on development initiatives.
JN/APA