Success of BRICS Bank May Inspire Creation of SCO Bank

The successful example of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) may inspire the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states to create a similar development bank, the deputy head of Shanghai University's Institute of Public Diplomacy of SCO told Sputnik.

BEIJING (Sputnik) — Zhang Henglong said that the circumstances for the establishment of a SCO bank were quite favorable.

"Probably, it is rational to make the Bank of BRICS a starting point for the creation of the Bank of the SCO," Henglong said at the presentation of the "Yellow Book" on Russia and the SCO.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in July 2014 that Moscow was considering the establishment of the SCO Development Bank on the basis of the Eurasian Bank of Development, which has already been successfully operating in the region.

"The next two years will be a window of opportunity for the promotion of the institute [SCO Development Bank]," Zhang Henglong pointed out.

The SCO is a Eurasian political, economic and military organization founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan currently have observer status in the organization.

The NDB was created in July 2014 by the BRICS member states — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — to mobilize resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects.