The bank's meeting with the president was a great success. The bank has become an emblematic achievement of the cooperation mechanism. I think we will be able to establish a new world, a world that is a multilateral order, greater cooperation.
Leaders talk with the president of the new development bank. Stay tuned. Hello and welcome to Leaders Talk, where we meet leaders, thinkers and doers. I'm Sue Good. On April 29, 2025, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the headquarters of the New Development Bank based here in Shanghai and held talks with President Rousseff. So what important consensus was reached during the meeting as the bank is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary? How does President Rousseff evaluate the contribution of the bank to global economic cooperation and what role she expects the global south, especially the BRICS countries, could play in establishing a new global economic order? Let's find all these answers from our conversation with her. On April 29, 2025, the New Development Bank welcomed a distinguished guest, Chinese President Xi Jinping, at its headquarters in the Expo Park of Shanghai's Pudong New Area. He was greeted by Dilma Rousseff along with the bank's four vice presidents and staff. The New Development Bank is the first multilateral development institution initiated and led by emerging markets and developing countries. In July 2014, while attending the sixth BRICS summit in Brazil, President Xi together with then Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and other BRICS leaders decided to establish the New Development Bank headquartered in Shanghai, China. In 2023, Rousseff was elected president of the New Development Bank. In March this year, she was reelected for a new term.
Madam President, you just finished a meeting with the Chinese president.
The bank's meeting with President Xi was a great success. President Xi has always given support and even great help to the bank in difficult moments. In this first decade, President Xi designated this decade as a golden decade. It was a golden decade. What was important in President Xi's visit was that we talked about the next decade, which he also said would be the second golden decade, and he gave three suggestions that I think are fundamental for the bank. First, maintain the commitment to the principles that created the bank. What are they? Invest in the countries of the global south, basically in the BRICS countries. Second, build this investment in the areas that are fundamental, those that make a difference for developing countries and emerging economies: infrastructure, logistics, digital, and social. And third, the commitment to investment in innovation and technology, because applying technology in industrial activity, agricultural activity, services, in all areas, transforms countries and makes them grow. President Xi has immense clarity about the paths that a bank like the NDB should take. I wanted to highlight another issue. We also discussed the concern regarding the current moment, and I expressed to the president my great respect for his firm position, his calm position, and his position of reaffirmation of China's sovereignty, which China has demonstrated over this time, and the respect and admiration that the countries of the global south have for such a calm, clear, yet firm position. And what makes it evident is the fact that President Xi is one of the great leaders of this historical moment. We carried out a series of procedures, there were so many. We used the bank's space to make the visit more important, because the president is a great leader and must be received with honor and admiration. I believe it was a moment of great interaction. The staff's spontaneous applause for President Xi demonstrates that. And I wanted to say another thing: after all, President Xi is the father of this bank. So I believe he also has this emotional connection to the bank. He was involved in its creation; he understands why the bank was created. This bank must fulfill this spirit, which is the BRICS spirit.
In July 2015, with strong support from President Xi, the New Development Bank officially opened in Shanghai. The NDB has built a platform for equitable development over the past decade. It has become an effective tool for financial governance not only among BRICS members but also across other emerging markets and developing countries. The NDB also contributes to the development of a more multilateral and multipolar international financial system. On April 28, 2025, on the eve of President Xi's visit to the New Development Bank, President Dilma Rousseff gave an interview to Leaders Talk. President Rousseff, as a former national leader, you have met with President Xi Jinping many times and discussed governance experience. You have lived and worked in China for nearly two years, witnessing the development and changes here. Now, what new insights do you have about President Xi's governance philosophy?
China in recent times has achieved extraordinary accomplishments under the leadership of President Xi. China has transformed into the second largest economy in the world, consolidated as the largest global manufacturing power, and taken the lead in innovation in sectors such as electronics, green technologies like electric vehicles, and artificial intelligence. I highlight a historic achievement that for me was lifting 800 million people out of extreme poverty. And I understand this fact very deeply, because as former president of Brazil, I led social policies that lifted millions of people out of poverty and off the UN hunger map. I know closely what the challenge of overcoming poverty is, but I clearly know that President Xi achieved an unparalleled feat. He did that. I also think another relevant issue is the improvement in environmental conditions here in China, the improvement in the business environment, and the improvement in people's quality of life that everyone who visits China perceives. I have made a point of visiting Chinese companies, especially those focused on science and technology. China's transformation into a global innovation power is truly admirable. I believe the advances are a reflection of China's governments, all of them, but more recently of President Xi's governance philosophy. His thinking, anchored in theoretical construction and practical experience in China's development, has enabled the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics, but they constitute wonderful examples for global south countries that seek to build their own paths, because China built its own path in a sovereign and sustainable way. That is what global south countries want: to build their paths in a sovereign and sustainable way. President Xi proposes something that I consider fundamental: the construction of a global community of shared future for all humanity, which I believe is the main concept that the president puts forward internationally. I think President Xi is one of the few great international leaders of this historical moment, but I also think another thing: I think the president is also a thinker, a thinker on governance and its challenges. That means he has a characteristic when possible. When I talk with President Xi, I try to extract the knowledge that I believe he has. I have a conversation with the president in which I also try to understand more and more how he is seeing things. I admire President Xi for his ability to formulate, for his resilience, and for this attitude that is sovereign, firm, but not aggressive. I think that is a very big difference. It is not necessary because he assumes clear positions, has clear measures, countermeasures, and I think he will leave a very strong mark on this century.
What do you consider the bank's main achievements over the past decade?
The NDB was created with a clear mandate: to mobilize resources to finance infrastructure, finance sustainable development, the energy transition in emerging markets and developing countries, and also finance quality development in BRICS countries, incorporating much of what China did, for example, incorporating the need to have quality industrialization, incorporating technology and innovation in all areas of society. And it also has a characteristic that I think is very important: we do not impose conditionality, as many multilateral banks do. We accept the agenda and demand of the countries. All member countries participate on equal footing. Among us, there is no member country that controls the institution and determines what the institution does, as happens in some institutions that emerged from Bretton Woods, where the United States controls the institution and defines its conditions. We have no veto mechanism among shareholders. And our financing mechanisms are recognized for their flexibility and respect. We respect what the countries want. The NDB also has innovative financial conditions. We adopt financing in local currencies, which helps reduce exchange rate risk and strengthen the financial stability of projects, mainly because it protects us against variations in the international market, interest rates, and exchange rates. The bank has become an emblematic achievement of the cooperation mechanism. It reflects the BRICS spirit, the spirit and vision of our leaders, and the spirit and partnership necessary among all countries of the world. So far we have approved around 120 projects, 40 billion dollars. In a general view, we think that the development and the way China has evolved is a kind of banner and proof that all countries in the world can develop. So we have great interest in this process, which is the analysis of China's development conditions. And we also want to greatly expand our reach. So we are expanding our membership. Today the NDB, besides the five founding members (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), we have Egypt, Bangladesh, and the UAE. And we will incorporate more members, and two have already joined: Algeria and Uruguay.
You are about to start a new term as president of the bank in July. What are your thoughts on the future planning and vision for the bank's development?
Recently I was elected, as you said, to a new term as president of the BRICS bank, which honors me deeply. In the next 5 years, the bank will continue advancing in its founding vision. We have 17 proposals now for the entry of new countries. We will, above all, improve our capacity and efficiency to fulfill our mandate, which is to expand resources for financing. We will continue investing in digital infrastructure. Digitalization and the digital economy are a condition for that. And here in China we have an example that I think is fundamental to incorporate: the fact that recently, in terms of artificial intelligence, DeepSeek showed that it is possible. It is possible using existing technology to create and surpass new technology, especially since they had blocked the chips in the hope that China would not advance in artificial intelligence. And we have this example of DeepSeek, which is an inspiring example for the entire global south.
