Brics’ South-South business ever stronger
OVER the past 11 years, the bond between the Brics members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – has kept growing stronger. In fiscal and financial areas, the five countries are set to strengthen international tax co-operation and financial regulatory collaboration, establish an improved network of financial services institutions and set up a co-operation framework for public private partnerships, agreed Brics finance ministers and central bank governors at a meeting in Shanghai in June.
Local currency bond markets in Brics countries will be advanced and efforts will be made to converge accounting and auditing standards. Measures will also be taken to protect against liquidity pressures and fight against money laundering and financing of terrorism. The New Development Bank (NDB), a key Brics institution, established in Shanghai in 2015, has seen good results in the last two years.
In 2016, it granted $1.5 billion in loans to seven projects, mostly green energy and infrastructure. From 2017 to 2018, the NDB has 23 projects at various stages, with a total lending amount of $6 billion.
Meanwhile, Brics countries will increase co-operation in innovation, encouraging science parks and strengthening training for technology transfer. An action plan for innovation co-operation issued last week placed emphasis on the younger generation by encouraging Brics countries to promote partnerships on youth innovation and entrepreneurship for pragmatic co-operation and establish inter-Brics investment instruments.
Rich biodiversity
Senior Brics environment officials also pledged to continue the sustainable use of the rich biodiversity of Brics countries to achieve internationally agreed targets and goals. The five countries have also vowed in the past months in a number of ministerial-level meetings to enhance co-operation in areas such as food security, health care, culture and sports.
The NDB is now designing criteria and a strategy to expand membership to new countries in its strategy for 2017-2021. The expansion will ensure geographic diversity and a mix of advanced, middleand lower-income countries. This will help turn Brics into the most influential platform for South-South co-operation. The five countries are home to 42 percent of the world’s population. Their total share in the global economy has risen from 12 to 23 percent in the past decade, while contributing more than half of global growth.