Reports: China Picks Site for BRICS Bank
China has already chosen a site for the future Shanghai headquarters of the BRICS development bank, state media said Thursday just two days after its creation.
At a summit in Brazil, the BRICS group of emerging economic powers -- which also includes Russia, India, China and South Africa -- on Tuesday created the New Development Bank to finance infrastructure projects.
After drawn-out negotiations over the bank's location, BRICS leaders agreed to put its headquarters in China's commercial hub of Shanghai, which is seeking to become an international financial centre.
Shanghai will place the headquarters in the former site of the 2010 World Expo in the city's premier Pudong development zone, in the section where the old China Pavilion -- now an art museum -- was located, along with those of several Asian and Middle Eastern countries, local television reported.
The city cleared a five-square-kilometre (two-square-mile) site for the six-month expo and large plots are now unused, though some of the area has been redeveloped.
Chinese state media said the BRICS bank aims to reduce Western dominance of the global financial system, while criticising multi-lateral agencies like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
"The old pattern in which the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund dominated the field will face competition from now on," the Global Times newspaper said in an editorial on Thursday.
"The launch of the BRICS bank with Shanghai as its headquarters is a testament to China's national strength, diplomatic capabilities and strategic position," said the newspaper, known for its nationalistic editorial stance.
The Chinese government took a less strident tone. China's finance ministry said the bank would help the global recovery and drive long-term economic growth, according to a report by the official Xinhua news agency.
The BRICS grouping will base an Africa Regional Centre in South Africa, after Johannesburg lost out to host the headquarters.
Source: Agence France Presse
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