BRICS bank will be a role model for world: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday favoured an open, rule-based, global trading regime which is critical for world economic growth and said the BRICS nations should ensure that the new development bank and contingent reserve arrangement should establish a new model. Addressing the opening session of the sixth BRICS summit here, he said the new trading regime must address aspirations of developing world and accommodate the need of the most vulnerable sections of society especially in areas such as food security.

Referring to the BRICS bank, he said members should ensure these institutions —  New Development Bank, Contingent Reserve Arrangement —establish a new model. ‘The first BRICS Summit took place in the middle of a global economic crisis. BRICS was a ray of hope. It supplemented existing international institutions with newer ideas and mechanisms,’ the Prime Minister said at the summit attended by Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China, Jacob Zuma of South Africa and Dilma Rousseff of Brazil.

‘It provided an additional avenue of working for global economic recovery and stability. It was a new voice in the cause of global peace and development. I am happy that we are living up to that promise,’ he added. ‘We will champion clean and frugal resources to maintain sustainability of our development process without constraining our growth,’ Modi said. 

‘We will invest heavily in infrastructure, affordable housing, healthcare, education and clean energy. 

We can all partake of the bounty of nature; however, exploitation of nature is a crime,’ he said. ‘The choices we make now will shape the future of not just our countries, but the World at large. This is a great responsibility we bear.