Shannon Ebrahim

been the creation of the New Development Bank (NDB) in Shanghai, China, in 2015.

The NDB epitomises the desire of major developing countries to play a bigger role in global governance. It is well known that developing countries and emerging markets grew impatient with the slow pace of reform at international financial institutions to obtain a bigger voice.

The core purpose of the NDB is to mobilise resources for infrastructure and sustainable development in the BRICS countries.

The vice-president of the NDB is a South African, Leslie Maasdorp, who has proved to be a capable and visionary driver of the process to mobilise development financing.

It is a huge accomplishment that the NDB, which is 3 years old, has approved loans to date of $5.1 billion (R67.8bn). The NDB is prepared to reach $15bn of loans by 2021.

According to Maasdorp, the

NDB has completed its first loans to entities in keeping with its policy that 30% of them should go to nonsovereign operations or the private sector, while 70% should have a sovereign guarantee.

Usually loans are made to stateowned enterprises or government where a government underwrites the loan. Many multilateral banks are now giving loans to the private sector for infrastructure financing.

The recent meeting of the board of directors and governors of the NDB has reached an important milestone, having approved a budget for six new projects.

One important loan which the NDB has committed to is of particular importance to South Africa, as the bank has approved a loan of $200 million to Transnet to enhance the capacity of its port in Durban.

The project will see the rehabilitation of the port’s container terminal berths which are operating beyond their original design, and the upgrading of infrastructure to provide additional slots for larger vessels.

Sixty-five percent of South