South Africa names Brics bankers
29 June 2015
The Brics New Development Bank is expected to be up and running by the end of
this year, according to the National Treasury.
The Cabinet had endorsed the nomination of Leslie Maasdorp as vice-president of
the bank, while Tito Mboweni had been appointed as the non-executive director to
the board of the bank, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said on 26 June.
"It is also a pleasure to announce that the Agreement on the New Development
Bank and the Treaty for the establishment of a Brics Contingent Reserve
Arrangement have been ratified by our Parliament," he said.
The bank was expected to be operational by end of 2015, and the process to
establish the African Regional Centre was under way. As soon as the bank opened
for business, the centre would also be open to consider projects on the continent.
The inaugural meeting of the Board of Governors of the Brics New Development
Bank will take place on 7 July in the
Russian city of Ufa, when the management will
be formerly appointed.
Brics – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – represent 40% of the world's
population and a quarter of its economic output. They decided in 2013 to create
their own development bank to step up lending for the infrastructure projects
needed to close the gap with the industrialised world.
The bank will have its headquarters in Shanghai and is expected to have up to
$100-billion (R1.2-trillion) in capital.
Maasdorp recently left AdvTech, where he was chief executive. He was previously
the president of Merrill Lynch for southern Africa. In 2002, he was the first African
to be appointed as international adviser to Goldman Sachs International. From 1999
to 2002, he led the privatisation programme for the government when he served as
deputy director-general. In 1994, he was appointed as special adviser to Mboweni,
who was the minister of labour at the time.
Mboweni
was the eighth governor of the South African Reserve Bank and the first
black South African to hold the post. He previously served as the minister of labour,
as professor of economics at Stellenbosch University and as chairperson of
AngloGold Ashanti Limited. He is the independent non-executive chairman of
Nampak.
SAinfo reporter
Leslie Maasdorp. (Image: World Economic Forum)
Tito Mboweni speaks during Lessons from the New Champions session at the World Economic Forum on Africa, held in Cape Town from 4 to 6 May 2011. (Image: World Economic Forum, Wikimedia Commons)
