The Second Annual Meeting of the New Development Bank (NDB) started today in the national capital with the Meeting of its Board of Directors. The three day Annual Meeting of NDB will be held from 31^st March to 2^nd April, 2017.

Second day i.e.1^st April, 2017 of the NDB Annual Meeting will start with BRICS Business Council Meeting which will be followed by the Opening Ceremony of the Second Annual Meeting of the NDB Board of Governors’. The Finance Minister of India and NDB Governor for India, Mr. Arun Jaitley will deliver the Key Note Address. Other speakers at the Opening Ceremony would be NDB President Mr. K.V. Kamath, Minister of Finance of China and NDB Governor for China, Mr Xiao Jie among others. Their address will be followed by the address by Secretary for International Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Brazil, Mr Marcelo Estevao. Other speakers during the Opening Ceremony would be Mr Sergey Storchak, Deputy Minister of Finance of Russia and Mr Monale Ratsoma, Deputy Director General (DDG), South Africa Treasury. The Opening Session will also be addressed by Mr Werner Hoyer, President, European Investment Bank (EIB), Mr Akinwumi Adesina, President, African Development Bank (AfDB) and Sir Suma Chakrabarti, President, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The Opening Ceremony will be followed by Signing Ceremony for Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Five (5) MOUs are likely to be signed by NDB President Mr Kamath, one each with European Investment Bank (EIB), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) and International Investment Bank (IIB). In the evening, NDB President Mr. K.V. Kamath will address a Press Conference.

On the third and last day of the NDB meeting i.e.2^nd April, 2017, two seminars will be held. First seminar will be on Financing Sustainable Development in which there will be two Sessions, one on the Government Perspective and another on the Banking Sector Perspective. The Government Perspective Session will be addressed by Mr. Shaktikanta Das, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, GOI, Mr Marcelo Estevao, Secretary for International Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Brazil and Mr. Celestin Monga, Chief Economist and Vice President, African Development Bank. The Session on Banking Sector Perspective will be addressed by Ms. Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank, Mr. Khaled Al-Aboodi, CEO, Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector, Mr. Nikolay Tsekhomskiy, First Deputy Chairman - Member of the Board, Vnesheconombank and Mr. Ernest Dietrich, Group Executive, Development Bank of Southern Africa. The second Seminar will be on the subject of Urban Planning and Sustainable Infrastructure Development.

International development bank cooperation advances sustainable finance and infrastructure through MOUs and seminars at annual meeting. The New Development Bank's annual meeting emphasised multilateral cooperation and sustainable development finance, featuring a signing ceremony for five Memoranda of Understanding with other international development banks and thematic seminars on sustainable development financing (government and banking perspectives) and urban planning and infrastructure development to promote coordinated financing, knowledge sharing, and partnership mechanisms.