India looking at $2 bn funding from New Development Bank: Jaitley

New Delhi, April 1 (IANS) Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said that India was looking at $2 billion loan from the New Development Bank (NDB), adding that the expectations were of a cheaper rate and expeditious disbursement.

"We have proposed projects worth about $2 billion for NDB funding, which I hope will be taken up by the Board expeditiously. Being a lean organisation, it is also expected that the NDB will not only offer loans at cheaper rate, but will also influence the more established MDBs to revisit their high cost model," Jaitley said here at the opening ceremony of the second annual meeting of NDB here.

NDB was formerly known as BRICS Development Bank and was established by member countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – in 2014.

The Indian Finance Minister said that the uniqueness of NDB should lie in faster loan appraisal, a lean organisational structure resulting in lower cost of loans, a variety of financing instruments, including local currency financing, adoption of country system whenever possible and flexibility in responding to the needs of the clients.

"These are the elements which would make NDB truly a new institution, and make it distinct from older multilateral development banks (MDBs).

"It is our expectation that the bank will bring in a whiff of freshness in project and loan appraisal, as also will be nimble footed to meet the expectations of its clients," he said.

Jaitley said India presents huge opportunities as it has investment needs of Rs 43 lakh crore (about $646 billion) over the next five years.

"70 per cent of this will be required in the power, roads and urban infrastructure sectors. This offers an enormous opportunity to an institution like NDB, whose core mandate is sustainable infrastructure development," he said.

The Finance Minister said that the first agreement for an NDB loan in India, to finance major district roads in Madhya Pradesh has been signed a couple of days back.

"I hope India will have a long, fruitful, intensive and mutually beneficial partnership with the NDB. I conclude with the hope that the NDB will emerge as a development bank representing the voice and aspirations of the emerging developing nations, and will set a new trend in multilateral funding," he said.