NEW DELHI — Developing nations again seem unlikely to propel one of their own citizens into the World Bank presidency.
It might not matter. A group of rising powers is mulling its own alternative to Western-dominated lending institutions.
The proposal for a new development bank is one of many to be discussed by the five fast-growing nations known as BRICS when they meet for their fourth summit Thursday in New Delhi.
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa account for 45 percent of the world’s population and a quarter of the economy at $13.5 trillion.
Increasingly crucial for world growth as flagging Western economies skimp on imports and aid, the BRICS have long argued for more influence in and reform of Western institutions.
Such organizations for decades have dominated global aid and trade policy but made patchy progress in meeting goals such as eradicating poverty.
President Obama’s decision last week to continue the tradition of nominating an American as World Bank chief - over candidates from other nations the BRICS had wanted - may add to momentum for a new alternative.
A new international lender could rival the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, which focus on lending to poor nations to help speed their development and reduce poverty.
It’s unclear if it also could participate in bailing out countries in crisis - a function that’s largely the domain of the International Monetary Fund.
“If they can pool their resources and coordinate their aid strategies, then they will be far more powerful,” said Sreeram Chaulia, world politics analyst at Jindal School of International Affairs just outside Delhi. “By floating a bank, they are strategizing and clearly playing for the long run.”
But experts cautioned that a lack of unity in foreign policy could undermine their goal. They failed to unite behind a single World Bank candidate, which might have helped their cause.
“They have to get their act together politically,” Mr. Chaulia said. “It is much more challenging to form a collective security agenda.”
What the five BRICS nations have in common, however, is a focus on eradicating poverty, securing food and energy supplies, developing infrastructure and gaining new technologies. They also may talk about a common position on climate change.
India is home to a third of the world’s poor, while Johannesburg is seen as a door to Africa’s largely untapped market of 1 billion people. All of the BRICS want to bolster high-tech sectors and affordable health care.
China, which is seeking to advance the use of its yuan currency worldwide, thinks the bank could offer developing nations more say in how funds are invested in emerging economies, Chinese Foreign Ministry official Li Kexin said, according to the Hindu newspaper.
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