The President of the New Development Bank (NBD), Dilma Rousseff, received President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers' Party) for her inauguration ceremony at the head of the bank. This was the first activity on the president’s official agenda during his state visit to China.
Lula and Dilma had a closed-door meeting with directors of the financial institution before starting the ceremony. First to speak, Rousseff, who was one of the founders of the Brics bank, spoke about the need to expand the institution's capacity.
"It is essential to expand the bank's reach and impact. On the one hand, we are expanding the number of member countries, strengthening our cooperation platform. On the other hand, we are financing key projects for development. From sanitation to social and digital infrastructure."
The New Development Bank was created in 2014, at the sixth BRICS conference in Fortaleza (Brazil), and has an authorized initial capital of US$ 100 billion. In October 2022, the bank defined that it will lend US$ 30 billion to support general growth and sustainable development projects in the countries it finances over a period of five years.
President Dilma Rousseff at her inauguration ceremony / Ricardo Stuckert
Forty percent of these loans must go to climate change mitigation and adaptation projects. Other important areas are clean energy, transport infrastructure, urban development, water and sanitation management, and social and digital infrastructure. Around 30% of the loans will be made using the currencies of the block’s member countries.
President Lula read a speech for about 15 minutes, in which he stated that the "New Development Bank meets all the conditions to become the great bank of the Global South. For the first time, a development bank with a global reach is established without participation of developed countries in its initial phase. Free, therefore, from the shackles of conditionalities imposed by traditional institutions on emerging economies. And more: with the possibility of financing projects in local currency."
After reading the speech, Lula took off his glasses and addressed the audience for another 15 minutes, this time without a script. The president said that the bank emerged from the dialogue he maintained with the leaders of Russia, China, India and South Africa prior to the G7 meetings, to which the presidents of emerging economies were invited.
In this context, Lula was applauded when he criticized the hegemony of the dollar in the world economy and the role of international financial institutions commanded by the Global North.
"A development bank has to have more functions and not just one. I ask myself every night why all countries are obliged to do their trade backed by the dollar? Why can't we carry out trade backed by our currency?" said Lula. "A president cannot govern with a knife around his neck," he defended, referring to the conditionalities imposed by institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Expectations regarding the State visit
Lula brought to China an important delegation with nineteen federal deputies, seven senators - including the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco -, five governors and seven ministers, among them Fernando Haddad, from Finance, Marina Silva, from the Environment and Paulo Teixeira, from Agrarian Development and Family Farming. Representatives of labor union centrals and from the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) are also part of the delegation.
One of the entourage members was federal deputy Jandira Feghali (Communist Party of Brazil - RJ), who in conversation with Brasil de Fato stated that the trip is essential for the country's reindustrialization goals.
"Brazil needs to generate a national development project, Brazil needs to add value to its industrialization, it needs to generate jobs. So, Brazil cannot avoid major negotiations and the construction of agreements with a country like China, which is at the forefront on the frontier of innovation, science and technology", said the deputy.
After the agenda at the New Development Bank headquarters, Lula went with part of the delegation to Huawei's innovation center in Shanghai. Among those present was the governor of Bahia, Jerônimo Rodrigues (Workers' Party), who has been in China since the end of March, when the state visit was canceled due to the president's mild pneumonia.
President Lula and Brazilian delegation on visit to Huawei / Ricardo Stuckert
Last week, the governor signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the company to expand agreements between the state and the tech giant in areas ranging from education to public safety.
Lula also met with executives from BYD, the electric car manufacturer that even surpassed Tesla in sales last year, and with the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), a Chinese state-owned infrastructure giant.
On Friday (14), Lula and his ministerial team will meet with the president of the state-owned energy company State Grid, Zhang Zhigang, one of the companies that will likely be part of the major agreements that will be signed.
The agenda continues with a meeting with the President of the National People's Congress of China, Zhao Leji, in the Great Hall of the People, and a floral offering ceremony at the Monument to the People's Heroes, in Tiananmen Square.
In the afternoon, before the expected meeting with his peer Xi Jinping, Lula will also meet with representatives of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and with the Chinese Prime Minister, Li Qiang.
Edited by: Nicolau Soares e Flávia Chacon
