The New Development Bank (NDB), also known as the BRICS bank, announced that it signed its first lending agreement on Wednesday approving 525 million yuan ($75.53 million) of sovereign loans for a project in China - the Shanghai Lingang Distributed Solar Power Project.
The loan agreement was signed by Vice Minister of Finance Shi Yaobin and NDB President K.V. Kamath, according to a statement the bank sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.
The agreement "demonstrates the strong commitment of the Chinese government to support the NDB in delivering its mandate of promoting infrastructure and sustainable development," Shi was quoted as saying in the statement.
The Shanghai solar project will be implemented by Shanghai Lingang Hongbo New Energy Development Co. Under the framework of the project, a solar photovoltaic power plant with total a capacity of 100 megawatts will be built in the Lingang Industrial Area, one of the six major functional development areas of Shanghai.
The project will be divided into a number of smaller sub-projects that will be sequentially implemented over three years, according to the statement.
Earlier this year, the board of directors of the NDB approved seven projects in all member countries for a total of more than $1.5 billion.
All of those projects are in line with the bank's focus on environment-friendly energy generation, sustainable development and infrastructure.
The approved projects will support the creation of 1,500 megawatts of renewable energy capacity and are estimated to result in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by more than 4.1 million tons per year, the bank said.
