Brazil’s Former President Dilma Rousseff was re-elected head of the New Development Bank (NDB), also known as the BRICS Bank. Her current term, which began in March 2023 and runs until July this year, was unanimously extended for another five-year period.
“I was re-elected. They nominated me, and the board unanimously approved it,” announced Rousseff during an event held in Beijing on Sunday (23). The NDB’s headquarters is in Shanghai, more than a thousand kilometers from the Chinese capital. “When I took over [the presidency], the BRICS Bank hadn’t borrowed money for 16 months. Now we’re fine. When you don’t have liquidity, you don’t invest. In other words, you don’t make loans either,” she said.
Both the presidency and vice-presidency of the NDB are rotated among BRICS founding members: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The bank was officially established in 2015 and supports the financing of infrastructure and sustainable development projects in the group’s member countries.
Russia endorsed Rousseff’s re-election, as the country was responsible for the appointment. Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Rousseff’s performance heading the bank during an event in St. Petersburg.
The appointment is an important nod to the Brazilian government, but it also gives Russia a few more years to take over the bank, since it is at war with Ukraine and coping with trade sanctions.
