MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Jacob Zuma's statement came Monday, two days ahead of the annual summit of BRICS member states — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — in the Russian city of Ufa on July 8-9.
"We’ve had these old banks that have been established many years back. The world has moved, the world has developed. For a number of years we've been calling for the transformation of the financial institutions globally… We now have a bank that is an alternative," Zuma said.
Zuma added that West still treats African nations, including South Africa, as former colonies, while within BRICS, member states are equal partners.
The NDB was created in July 2014 as an alternative to legacy western global financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
The countries also agreed to establish a $100-billion liquidity reserve to maintain the bank's financial stability.
