On the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Brazil, VEB.RF Chairman Igor Shuvalov described major areas of cooperation among the development banks of the five economies in 2020. With Russia’s presidency of BRICS, VEB.RF is to be in charge of the association’s Inter-Bank Cooperation Mechanism for one year.

“Top of our agenda is attracting private investment in infrastructure. I mean joint efforts to bolster up public-private partnerships. There is extensive experience of using this mechanism globally. Public-private partnerships should be involved in creating the country’s main infrastructure. It was previously part of VEB.RF’s internal agenda. We are now submitting this issue to BRICS,” Igor Shuvalov said.

A special area of cooperation is a modern urban economy. “Developing an urban economy has a direct impact on quality of life. VEB.RF systematically works to build up competencies in this area. For example, we fully share an understanding of this issue with Brazil’s BNDES. We have their active support for this,” he added.

Additionally, Igor Shuvalov announced plans to continue to work on widening the use of national currencies for international payments. According to Shuvalov, the use of the Russian rouble is a key element in the country’s financial and economic sovereignty. Shuvalov said: “It is necessary for us to maintain our currencies and trade capabilities. We are working to come up with a technological solution for this problem. We need to demonstrate several deals with major players. During our presidency, we will attempt to make as much progress towards this goal as we can.”

The important areas of cooperation also include integrating the national payment systems and digital platforms, along with maintaining the principles of multilateral regulation for international trade and investment relations.