Other BriefingsUAE Wants To Invest In BRICS New Development Bank
The United Arab Emirates is looking to its new BRICS membership as an opportunity to develop trade and plans to commit more capital to the group’s New Development Bank (NDB), the UAE Economy Minister Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri stated on Monday (August 28).
The UAE joined the NDB two years ago and is now among the six new members approved to join the BRICS community last week. Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates will become full-fledged members of the BRICS group of major emerging nations from January 2024.
The NDB was established in 2014 by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa with the aim of providing funding for infrastructure and sustainable development projects. The bank formally opened for business in 2015, and was later joined by Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Uruguay. Saudi Arabia is also in talks to become a member.
“We are actually going to push more” and will “indeed” inject capital into the bank, Al Marri said, without specifying an amount.
The UAE is one of the few countries to manage over US$1 trillion in sovereign wealth capital, meaning it represents a potentially deep-pocketed contributor for the NDB. With the UAE also OPEC’s third-biggest producer, it can give more financial muscle to the bank, and compete as a counterweight to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Al Marri said that the UAE will continue to develop trade with the West while boosting commerce with lesser-developed countries of the Global South, saying that “BRICS membership is huge to the UAE. Joining BRICS will add a lot to the UAE multilateral support to the world. We are focusing on our global trade; the UAE has always been a global hub.”
According to general analysis, the combined gross domestic product (GDP) of the expanded BRICS in terms of purchasing power parity will be roughly US$65 trillion. This would see the bloc’s share of global GDP rise from its current 31.5% to 37%. In comparison, the share of the G7 group of advanced economies is currently around 29.9%.
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