BRICS :- BRAZIL – RUSSIA – INDIA – CHINA- S-Africa

Who gave the concept of BRICS?

The expression shows ..worlds fastest growing economy. The concept was given in 2001 by Goldman Shech in 2001.According to him, the growing economy of Bric by 2015 will be heavier than economies of current industrialized developed nations.ew members-

 New full members—

 5 new members are Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

1^st Summit-

The first BRIC Summit was held in June 2009 in Russia. It was hosted by P.M. Dimity Medvedev.
General discussions in BRICS  -

Economics

China was lobbied by the other leaders to import not only commodities but also value added products and other commodities such as oil, soybeans and iron ore.

Brazil and India also pressed China to buy such goods as Brazilian aircraft and Indian pharmaceuticals; the two states also complained about the artificially undervalued yuan that they claimed was undermining their exports.

International law on Anti-Terror-

All five countries also called for an early conclusion to deadlocked talks an anti-terror law under UN auspices that would curtail funding for illegal groups that partake in violence against states and deny their supporters access to funds, arms, and safe havens.

UN's role was central

The heads of government at the summit said that the ..UN's role was central in coordinating international action against what they labeled terrorism within the framework of the UN Charter and in accordance with principles and norms of international law.

United Nations Security Council reform

All BRICS countries called for "comprehensive reform of the UN, including its Security Council." China said it would endorse the aspirations of India, Brazil and South Africa for permanent membership of the UNSC. Coincidentally, the five countries are all now members of the Security Council, China and Russia as permanent members and the other three non-permanent.

Withdrawal from loans in American dollars-Dedollarisation

The 5 BRICS countries will henceforth give credits to one another in their national currencies solely.

15th BRICS summit-

The 2023 BRICS summit was the fifteenth annual BRICS summit . South African President Cyril Ramaphosa also invited the leaders of 67 countries to the summit.

BRICS Expansion

Several countries have expressed interest in joining the BRICS group.^[5] At the summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to join the bloc. Full membership will take effect on 1 January 2024

Statement about BRICS Currency

In the "August Statement" , the bloc concluded, “Such a currency increases our payment options and reduces our vulnerabilities.” Moreover, “it presents a clear path away from the greenback throughout their trade dealings

EXIM Bank and BRICS

MoU signed between Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) and member banks under BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism on Collaborative Research on …..Distributed Ledger and ….Block chain Technology…. in context of development of …digital economy.

Proposed inclusions-

Mexico and South Korea are currently the world's 13th and 15th largest by nominal GDP just behind the BRIC and G7 economies.

New Development Bank:

 During the Sixth BRICS Summit in Fortaleza (Brazil) in 2014, the leaders signed the Agreement establishing the New Development Bank (NDB - Shanghai, China).

 Is a multilateral development bank operated by the five BRICS states.

Function-

The bank's primary focus of lending in infrastructure projects.

The bank was established to support infrastructure and sustainable development efforts in the BRICS grouping, as well as other underserved and emerging economies, in order to achieve faster growth through cutting-edge technology and innovation.

Clean energy, water and sanitation, transportation, social infrastructure, digital infrastructure, and urban development are all covered by the projects.

New members-

Recently Bangladesh, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay were added as new members of BRICS New Development Bank (NDB)

The BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA)-

Is a framework for providing protection against global liquidity pressures.

 This includes currency issues where members' national currencies are being adversely affected by global financial pressures.

 The CRA is generally seen as a competitor to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and along with the New Development Bank is viewed as an example of increasing South-South cooperation

Shortcomings of BRICS

BRICS member nations are too different, and have too few synergies, to represent a solid economic and political power.

1- Diversity of cultures. Phases of economic development, ideologies, definitions of poverty and other cultural differences mean BRICS members lack common understandings.

2- The dominance of the Chinese economy and its role in trade relations makes the BRICS much more a China-with-partners group than a union of equal members.

3- BRICS countries lack mutual economic interests. Trade between them is now      less than 320 bln dollars a year and declining. Their trade with the US and EU is 6.5 times higher. China’s trade with the rest of the world is 12.5 times higher. Bilateral trade between China and South Korea is almost as large as that between BRICS nations.

4-Members are too similar in some key areas. All members (apart from Russia) hold huge foreign reserves (15-35% of GDP) and have low external debt (15% to 37% of GDP.) Apart from Russia, they are heavily integrated into consumer goods production with the ‘West’.

5-BRICS nations compete in third markets. In many areas, from clothing (China, India and Brazil), through economic influence in Africa (China, South Africa and India) to international aircraft and military equipment markets (China, Russia and Brazil) BRICS countries compete with one another.

 All are able to re-engineer and copy technologies, which means sharing R&D results and innovations and the development of cross-country scientific cooperation has limited potential.