Jakarta. Indonesia will invest $1 billion in the BRICS-backed New Development Bank or NDB, according to a senior minister, thereby securing Jakarta’s seat in the multilateral lender that has funded energy projects worldwide.

The NDB has rolled out multibillion-dollar worth of loans for countless clean energy and transportation projects. Being the latest addition to the BRICS bloc, Indonesia has been eyeing an NDB membership for extra development funding. Chief Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto had repeatedly stated that Indonesia would need to put a sum of money in the NDB before it could officially become a member, although he had never revealed the actual figure until just recently. 

“The government has agreed to invest $1 billion in the NDB. So we will become a member. And we quickly participate actively in preparing for our accession to the NDB,” Airlangga told the country’s business leaders in Jakarta on Monday.

Airlangga did not say when NDB would officially bring Jakarta into its fold. Airlangga once revealed to the press that new entrants had seven years to pay their capital contribution in installments. He had told the Jakarta Globe back in October that Indonesia was hoping to be part of the NDB club “as soon as possible”.

Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa -- the earlier members of the BRICS bloc -- established the NDB in 2015. Since then, the NDB has expanded to include Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, and Algeria. The UAE is the only one that has not borrowed any money from the bank. The memberships for Uruguay, Uzbekistan, and Colombia are in the pipeline.

The five original members made an initial subscription of 500,000 shares totaling $50 billion. Their respective stakes are at 18.76 percent each. The subscribed capital of the other members ranges from 1.04 percent to 2.24 percent. As of the latest available data, the founding members have fully paid their paid-in capital, while Bangladesh and the UAE have only taken care of up to the third installment. Egypt has only paid its first.

The NDB, which primarily disburses sovereign loans, reported that it had greenlit financing proposals worth a total $39 billion. The money mainly goes to projects in the founding members, although Bangladesh already has two non-sovereign loan proposals approved, one is related to a North Dhaka waste-to-energy generation -- something similar is in the works in Indonesia.

BRICS is a group of emerging economies that many have described as a counterpoint to Western power. Indonesia officially became a BRICS member in January. This marked one of President Prabowo Subianto’s major foreign policy moves since assuming leadership in October 2024. 

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