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Your Excellency, Minister Anton Siluanov,

Your Excellency, Minister Paulo Guedes,

Your Excellency, Minister Nirmala Sitharaman,

Your Excellency, Minister Kun Liu,

Your Excellency, Minister Tito Mboweni,

It is my honor to address the Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the New Development Bank.

Let me start by congratulating Minister Anton Siluanov for his leadership as chair of the Board.

I also want to express my gratitude for all Governors. Your support and commitment are the strong pillars of our institution.

The guidance and strategic role of the Board of Governors is at the heart of the NDB’s growth and success.

The Bank’s evolution from its very first days is impressive.

Since its founding, the Bank has focused on gaining scale and relevance. Those objectives have been met.

Our portfolio now gathers 76 projects. They go from clean energy to urban development, from sanitation to social infrastructure.

Project approvals now total USD 28 billion.

The NDB is there to make a difference in financing infrastructure. Sustainable development is our mission.

As we look towards the future, we want to make sure that the NDB is always enhancing the quality of its projects.

Our duty is to maximize the development impact of what we do as an institution.

The establishment of the regional offices brought the NDB closer to the needs of our member countries.

By the end of this year, our local presence in Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa will be fully operational.

Excellencies,

Countries and institutions across the world have to face the multi-fold dimensions of fighting COVID-19.

And the NDB has joined that fight.

The Bank and its member countries are working together to overcome the COVID challenge.

The NDB is delivering a USD 10 billion Emergency Response Program that promotes better health, social relief and economic recovery.

As the world emerges from the COVID crisis, old and new development needs are coming our way. The NDB must be prepared to tackle them with innovative tools.

Among those tools, a new organizational structure of the NDB will bring private sector mobilization, talent and sustainability further to the core of our activities.

As a result, the Bank will be better equipped to cope with the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

The NDB has also been able to successfully tap international capital markets.

Our inaugural dollar bonds were issued last year. And a week ago, we issued our first Sustainable Development Goals bond.

Excellencies,

The vision we shared last November with the BRICS leaders during the 12th Summit is very clear.

Our drive is to enhance the NDB’s profile by positioning it as a premier development bank for emerging economies.

We are working towards membership expansion in a gradual and responsible way so we can soon announce that the NDB family is growing.

As the concept of infrastructure evolves, we are preparing the Bank to deliver greater quality and multiply development benefits.

We value talent as the key engine of our organization.

Our institution is an interactive platform. The common goals of infrastructure and sustainable development are pursued every day.

For the NDB, cooperation is the method – and improving peoples’ lives, our highest priority.

Thank you very much.