President of the BRICS New Development Bank K.V. Kamath answers questions during a press conference in Shanghai, east China, July 6, 2017. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe)
The BRICS New Development Bank has seen good results in the last two years and has a strong pipeline for the future, bank president K.V. Kamath said Thursday.
"The last two years have been very satisfying to us. It has built a strong foundation for the bank," Kamath said.
The bank has 23 projects at various stages of preparation for 2017 to 2018, with a total lending amount of six billion U.S. dollars.
Among them, five projects, totaling 1.7 billion dollars, are in China. The remainder are made up of six projects in India, seven in Brazil, two in Russia, and three in South Africa.
In 2016, the bank granted 1.5 billion dollars in loans to seven projects. Most projects involved green energy or infrastructure, Kamath said.
The bank sold its first 3 billion yuan (437 million U.S. dollars) yuan-denominated bonds in China in July last year, to fund clean energy projects in member states.
It plans to issue rupee-denominated bonds this year and will also look for opportunities to issue bonds in Brazil and Russia, Kamath said.
The bank formally opened on July 21, 2015 in Shanghai.