Ufa (Russia), July 8 (IANS) The BRICS group with deepened cooperation will not only serve its five member countries and other developing nations, but also stabilise and even boost the world economy, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua said in a commentary.
Leaders of the BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are meeting on Wednesday in Ufa, Russia, for the group’s seventh summit.
They met for the first time in 2009, launching the cooperation mechanism. Since then, the BRICS nations have shown vitality and innovation through cooperation, with deepened participation in global governance, Xinhua said.
The five countries are setting up the New Development Bank (NDB). The institution’s board of governors will hold its first meeting in Moscow to appoint members of the board of directors and the management.
The NDB shows that the BRICS bloc has transformed from a political concept to a real force for reform in the international community, the news agency said.
With the bank’s funding, developing countries, especially the African states, can improve their infrastructure, rather than struggling with the limited funds the current international agencies provide them, it said.
Following are the detailed comments made by the news agency on the BRICS nation and its bank:
The new development bank will cover the shortcomings of the global financial system. It is not intended to overturn the current system, but to encourage investment from developed countries and other developing countries with an open and inclusive mind.
The BRICS has become an important platform for exchanges and cooperation among the world’s major emerging economies. It has brought real benefits for the member states, and also earned a good reputation among the international community.
This new cooperation mechanism pointed to an important trend: emerging economies are playing bigger roles in global issues.
Global economic recovery remains slow. While trade globalisation agreements are still being negotiated, the Western countries and Russia are introducing sanctions against each other, and the developed and developing countries have not yet reached agreement on how to balance economic development and climate change.
Under such circumstances, the BRICS leaders’ meeting in Ufa has critical significance as cooperation among them will benefit not only themselves but also the world economy.
Although the five countries are at very different stages of their development, they will still become new growth poles for the world economy. The five have contributed half the world’s economic growth in the past 10 years.
They have complementary industrial structures. Sufficient labour, abundant resources and large markets give them great opportunities for development.
The five countries are also important players in both their continents and international affairs. In multilateral platforms such as the UN and the G20, they are playing bigger roles than ever before, thus their booming economies can drive the whole global economy through their deepened cooperation with other countries and international organisations.
(Xinhua has its headquarters in Beijing with bureaus in all major cities)
–Indo-Asian News Agency
ab/hs/vt