Leaders of the BRICS nations will launch their long-awaited development bank at a summit next week and decide whether the headquarters should be in Shanghai or New Delhi, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Wednesday.
The creation by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa of a $100 billion bank to finance infrastructure projects has been slow in coming, with disagreements over its funding, management and headquarters.
"The (headquarters) issue will be decided on the level of the heads of the countries," Siluanov told journalists, adding that the choice is between China's Shanghai and India's New Delhi. BRICS leaders will meet July 15-16 in the Brazilian coastal city of Fortaleza.
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The launch of the bank will be the group's first major achievement after struggling to take coordinated action following an exodus of capital from emerging markets last year, triggered by the scaling back of U.S. monetary stimulus.