Voices of the guests

The advent of the “Golden Decade” of BRICS is a predictable result of joint efforts and aspirations of member countries to find a new geopolitical balance in a changing world. The stability and mutually advantageous relationship of member countries is a key point of President Xi Jinping’s speech. In Xiamen, I saw one of the most up-to-date cities with a unique set of characteristics, which is the reflection of unique elements of BRICS countries, and the summation of them will guarantee prosperity for our mutual future. Alexei Chekunkov, CEO of the Moscow-based Far East Development Fund At its best, BRICS should be more than the sum of its parts. It is not just about five countries, ... it is actually about them symbolizing some wider form of global language, global rhetoric, a model of world order that is different from the traditional Westerndominated one. Rana Mitter, director of the Oxford Poon China Centre at Oxford University President Xi Jinping’s opening remarks on the city of Xiamen are a unique introduction to his keynote speech at the BRICS Business Forum. The inclusion of cultural elements in such a high-profile speech is engaging and very much embraces “internet thinking”. Such an approach encourages companies like ours, which strive to promote cross-cultural communication using digital technologies and inspire people to create. It also underscores the importance of promoting people-to-people exchanges under the BRICS framework, on top of existing political and economic cooperation. Liu Zhen, senior vice-president of corporate development at Bytedance, operator of content platform Jinri Toutiao China shows a great willingness to cooperate with Africa. There will be greater engagement since South Africa will host the next BRICS Summit. I care about this as an African. Sundu Yvonnie Akonda, a reporter from South Africa BRICS is not a busted flush. If things go right for these nations, which have something like 40 percent of the world’s population, they have a chance of shaping the modern world. I believe that President Xi was demonstrating through the chairmanship of BRICS the importance of engaging with other countries. It is a very consistent message, which he also has demonstrated with the Belt and Road Initiative, to want to achieve greater cooperation, more trade, stability, greater prosperity and win-win outcomes. It is actually what he should be saying. You can become isolationist if you close all the windows and all the doors. China is, however, talking big in every way and you can see this with the massive economic change in the country. Peter Frankopan, director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research I particularly supported the initiative outlined at the 7th meeting of the BRICS trade ministers in Shanghai in August to create a common e-commerce platform. This really has huge potential and is an opportunity to create significant cross-border e-commerce trade within the nations. It also demonstrates how important BRICS can be in practice. If such an e-commerce platform is successful, it could then be adopted by all the 160 or so World Trade Organization members, something that would be difficult if it hadn’t been tested by the BRICS nations first. Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization I think this conference gave a positive signal to us, as it talked through important issues in relation to cooperation among BRICS countries and emerging markets like my country, Egypt, and South Africa. It also stresses that developing countries can have a powerful voice against the domination of those big countries in trade and economy. I think BRICS is a good example. Its confirmation about the importance of the dialogue among BRICS countries and other developing countries is vital in building a freer trade system in the world. Eltaweel Tarek, Egypt, Middle East News Agency