OREANDA-NEWS. An annual meeting of heads of partner banks on the BRICS interbank cooperation mechanism timed to coincide with the BRICS Heads of State Summit and a Final BRICS Forum took place in the city of Fortaleza (Brazil). Vnesheconombank Chairman Vladimir Dmitriev participated in these events.

The BRICS Financial Forum's participants expressed the need to enhance multilateral cooperation, discussed prospects for the interaction of the BRICS interbank cooperation mechanism with a BRICS Bank for Development to be established and spoke for stepping up contacts in interbank cooperation.

Speaking at the Financial Forum Vladimir Dmitriev said that by having ratings in line with sovereign ones, BRICS countries financial development institutions can raise funds on the foreign markets on favorable terms which could be in the future used to address structural problems of national economies.

In the course of the official ceremony at the 6th BRICS Summit, interbank cooperation mechanism member banks signed an Agreement on Cooperation in innovations in the presence of Heads of State. The Agreement provides for the BRICS financing development institutions to support innovation activity and would help to ensure sustainable growth and inflow of investments in infrastructure sectors of economy and in energy efficient and high technology manufacturing sectors.

The BRICS interbank cooperation mechanism was formed as a result of signing a Memorandum on cooperation between BRICS nations' development and export support institutions dated April 15, 2010.

The Memorandum is mainly designed to promote all-round, long-term, interbank cooperation between partners in order to enhance trade and economic relations between BRICS member nations as well as provide support for socially meaningful and regional projects.

Partners in the Memorandum are the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), State Corporation 'Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank)', the China Development Bank (CDB), the Export-Import Bank of India, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).