Recently Peter Draper organized a dialogue for the Centre for Development and Enterprise on the highly regarded Brazilian National Development Bank, BNDES, concerning the BNDES’s role in Brazil’s economic growth and development. The BNDES is held out as a model for South Africa, and other developing countries with relatively deep pockets. This model fits with active state promotion of industrial development, a model very attractive to those with more statist inclinations. However, the model is often invoked without much thought as to its applicability to South African or other developing country circumstances. This CDE report contains the thoughts of a former BNDES Chief Economist on the subject, as presented to a group of senior government officials and other selected participants at the dialogue.
Related to this, BRICS heads of state will reportedly endorse a proposal to establish a BRICS development bank at their forthcoming summit in South Africa next year. This interesting idea was much debated in the BRICS Strategic Issues Linkedin Group recently established by Peter Draper. To access this debate and a number of others related to the BRICS grouping please visit the group’s page and request membership.