The World Bank will remain relevant to the developing countries despite a plan to launch a rival bank by the BRICS emerging powers, Bank president Jim Yong Kim said Thursday. "I really have no doubt in my own mind about our continued relevance for a very long time," Kim said at a news conference opening the World Bank and IMF spring meetings. "It's true that the BRICS countries, many of them are extremely well financed and have money, but they continue to come to us for very specific reasons," he said

Several agreements were signed at the Fifth Brics Summit in Durban this week, and the much-mooted Brics Development Bank appears to be firmly on the cards. The event in Durban was touted as a success as the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa left Durban's International Convention Centre yesterday. President Jacob Zuma said they have decided to enter formal negotiations to establish a Brics-led new development bank. Brics is the group of developing countries made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. In a joint statement, Zuma an

The mooted BRICS bank of emerging powers is intended to complement, rather than compete with Western-dominated institutions on the world stage, the Indian Finance Minister said Monday. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram also said India supports Japan's nomination of a senior finance ministry official for the top job at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), as Tokyo looks to keep hold of a role it has held for almost 50 years.

BRICS 'concerned' about threat of military action on Iran: statement arb/txw