BRICS and Xi's vision for 'brighter future'
- By Sajjad Malik
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E-mail China.org.cn, September 2, 2017
Participants in a BRICS Business Forum being held on Sunday as part of the 9th BRICS Summit are looking forward to President Xi Jinping making a keynote speech. Organized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the forum will be an opportunity for Xi to share his philosophy of peace and development through cooperation.
The world economy is facing multiple challenges, primarily related to sluggish growth and trade protectionist policies of some developed countries.
BRICS, meanwhile, comprises some of the leading emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Creating unnecessary barriers to the flow of trade may hurt these economies, which need space to maximize exports and bring in foreign investment to continue their steady development and growth.
In his speech at the BRICS Business Forum, President Xi is expected to highlight the concerns and aims of his fellow developing nations to create a fair-trade regime. He may also urge the BRICS nations to boost infrastructure construction among themselves. The theme of connectivity is also likely to receive attention as a key element of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Xi had already shared his thoughts with BRICS representatives in a recent meeting about how their group of like-minded nations can create a new golden era of progress and development if the members remain committed to a joint effort for win-win success.
He has been rightly urging the world leaders at different forums to make development and connectivity the first priority, as it is only through economic development and communication that issues like poverty and backwardness can be effectively tackled.
He may also offer glimpses of how China was able to fast-track its progress over previous decades to claim a leading economic position and pull millions of its poverty-stricken citizen out of destitution in the process and ensure they could lead a good life.
China has been able to provide an alternative model of development to the world under successive leaders. Xi's speech is expected to resonate with the Xiamen Summit theme of "BRICS: Stronger Partnership for a Brighter Future."
BRICS is a sizable organization with about 43 percent of the world population and a quarter of the global economy through over US$16 trillion in combined GDP. Having just five members makes it slimmer. Being small in terms of membership gives it an additional advantage: the decision-making process should be easier as compared to larger groupings.
The group is unique in its construction, as it is amalgam of different cultures, regions, economies and political systems. It has been around for a decade and is now forging ahead towards a common goal of peace and development despite occasional distracting tension and strife.
The size and diverse structure makes BRICS an ideal body for the model of win-win cooperation as enunciated by President Xi on numerous occasions. He had already written to members of BRICS earlier this year that China would like to see them develop a consensus on a blueprint of cooperation to deepen the partnership for "brighter future."
BRICS has potential to become a vanguard for shared development. Yet, so far, it has been slow to achieve the ideal. The history of past summits shows that implementation process to transform collective decisions into practice must be fast-forwarded.
As the leaders come together in Xiamen, they should better come equipped with solution to the individual and collective problems hampering progress. They need to speak and listen; share and exchange. In the process they can institute a better system to execute decisions.
The world is passing through a critical stage of development. There are gigantic problems like global warming, threat of expansion of nuclear weapons, natural disasters and decades-old territorial and political disputes.
The global systems instituted decades ago to address disputes and ensure efficient and hassle-free economic governance are becoming archaic with the passage of time. BRICS, at the very least, can play a role in creating better fair trade rules.
The new problems of today demand new, human-friendly and quicker solutions. In the coming decades, survival will be possible only for those groups or organizations that can timely respond to individual and collective needs. Creative thinking and innovative solutions are demand of the day.
While we still have time to evolve response systems, organization like BRICS have both financial and human resources to develop firewalls against future shocks. The 9th summit with President Xi steering its course can play a groundbreaking role.
Sajjad Malik is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SajjadMalik.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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