Jim O'Neill - the chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management who coined the acronym "BRIC" for the economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China 11 years ago - said that he supports India's proposal for the BRICS countries to create a joint development bank.

Discussions on the BRICS bank, a multilateral bank that would be exclusively funded by developing nations and finance projects in those countries, were high on the agenda at the two-day BRICS summit, which opened in New Delhi on Wednesday.

"Obviously (the BRICS bank) would be helpful for further supporting and promoting trade between emerging countries," O'Neill told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

"And as we go through this decade, trade between the BRICS and emerging countries is probably going to be the biggest source of global GDP growth," he added.

O'Neill's remarks came ahead of the summit where leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa discussed ways to increase cooperation, especially seeking a bigger role in the global financial system to match their rising economic heft.

He coined the term BRIC in 2001, and still prefers to use this old acronym even though South Africa has joined the summit last year and it is now known as the BRICS.

The proposal for a BRICS bank builds on a pledge leaders from the five nations made at their last meeting in April 2011 in China, when they promised in a statement to "strengthen financial cooperation among the BRICS Development Banks".

Discussions intensified last month when India circulated a concept note on the BRICS bank among other members of the bloc at the G20 meeting in Mexico City.

O'Neill said that such a bank could help China further liberalize and grow the use of its currency, the yuan.

"Growing trade between China and other merging countries means it definitely makes sense for China to extend yuan loans to other major emerging countries," he said.

In the past few years, Chinese authorities have begun to gradually internationalize the yuan before fully liberalizing China's capital account.

O'Neill said that he is glad that the BRICS leaders meet annually, but believes that the different political and financial structures of the BRICS countries make any meaningful agreements difficult.

He cited as an example the BRICS countries' inability to support a single candidate as contender for the World Bank presidency.

"The BRIC countries should try and have a joint view on who the head of the World Bank should be. And if they can't agree on simple things like that, then it will be very difficult for others to take them seriously," said O'Neill.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian finance minister, and Jose Antonio Ocampo, the former finance minister of Colombia, both joined the race for the World Bank presidency nomination on March 23.

O'Neill added that substantial scope for cooperation between the BRICS countries does exist, especially in areas such as energy efficiency and global financial reforms.

He also remains optimistic about the BRICS countries' future growth: "This decade the BRIC countries will continue to be the main source of global GDP growth."

Contact the writer at cecily.liu@chinadaily.com.cn