BRICS photo
© AFP Photo / Evaristo SaFamily photo of the BRICS-UNASUR Summit in Brasilia, on July 16, 2014.
The five big emerging economies "are moving toward a new global architecture," Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said here Tuesday at the start of the seventh summit of the BRICS nations.

She spoke after representatives of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa signed the agreement to create a development bank and a $100 billion contingency fund.

"The first president of the bank will be India, the first regional office will be in South Africa and the headquarters will be in Shanghai," Rousseff said.

"The bank will represent an alternative for the financing needs of the developing countries ... (and) will compensate for the deficiencies in credit" that currently exist in the multinational financial institutions, the Brazilian leader said.

Regarding the contingency fund, which will be used by the BRICS nations to ameliorate international monetary turbulence, Rousseff said that "it will contribute to global financial stability."

"Due to the weight of their economies and influence in their regions," the BRICS nations "cannot be unconnected to the great international questions," she said.

"We are among the economies that grew most in recent years" and each member of this forum "has incentivized the mechanisms of economic integration and regional governance," said Rousseff, who cited the Union of South American Nations in Brazil's case.

Although a "slight recovery" in the most developed countries has been detected, "the emerging countries continue to be the driving force of the global expansion and must continue to be so in the future," she said.