Third pilar of the Earth

Last week the leaders of the BRICS nations met in Fortaleza to sign a new Multilateral Bank into existence. The New Development Bank (NDB) is born, will be headquartered in Shanghai and will open its doors to developing nations from 2016. It will have an initial capital pool of $50 billion that should rise to double if all goes according to the plan(s). The bank will also have a "Contingency Reserve Arrangement" of some $100bn to insulate developing countries from the “short-term liquidity pressures” of the financial markets. The primary goal of the NDB will be to drive economic progress in the developing world by fostering much-needed infrastructure projects. Currently, such projects in developing nations are costing an estimated $800 billion per annum. By 2025, it will be three times that amount, necessitating a global monthly spend of $200 billion – that’s an outlay analogous to the GDP of the Czech Republic every 30 days. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa account for 42% of the world's population, and 30% of global GDP based on Purchasing power parity (PPP). In term of global energy numbers, the nations giving birth to the NBD possess 31% of the world's recoverable shale oil and 28% of the world's shale gas. Although the BRICS $50 billion initial war chest represents a small 12% of the subscribed capital of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, the collaborative intent is there - the recent $400 billion Russo-Chinese gas deal signed between Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is a testament to that. By the way, NDB also stands for Never Done Before... :-)