OREANDA-NEWS. September 12, 2016. The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) considers the Russian economy to be resilient with high potential for development in due time, NDB Vice President Zhu Xian told Sputnik.

BRICS is an association of five developing economies, which comprises over one third of the world’s population. The five nations have a combined nominal GDP equivalent to approximately 20 percent of gross world product.

“The business cycle plays an important role in reality of the Russian economy. So we should not be pessimistic about the Russian economy. I believe Russian economy is very resilient…. with a lot of potential [it may unlock] in a due time,” Zhu Xian said. The bank is also interested in infrastructure projects in the Russian Far East region that would contribute to the development of regional integration, such as the creation of a transport corridor or infrastructure development, Zhu Xian said.

“Projects that we can support [include] not only [the ones] that boost the economy of Far East region, but also the regional integration. We are interested in such projects as transport corridor, port and infrastructure in a regional sense,” Zhu Xian said. According to Zhu, the bank will first check the viability of the project proposals after which it “will be happy to support them.” “We believe that the Far East Economy development is one of the priorities of Russia and we want to make some contribution as a new institution,” the NDB vice president said. Zhu added that he believed the region was attractive for neighboring countries such as China, Korea and Japan to launch regional integration processes.

Zhu’s statement comes ahead of the Eastern Economic Forum, set to open in the Russian city of Vladivostok. The forum, which is due to last through Saturday, is expected to attract some 2,500 participants, from countries including China, Japan, South Korea, India, Vietnam, Australia, the United States and Singapore. The NDB was established by BRICS member states in July 2014 to finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects both in BRICS and other developing countries.