BRICS nations usher in ‘Golden decade’

BEIJING: It is important for BRICS countries to exchange governance experiences as the bloc, consisting of emerging and developing nations, strives to usher in its second “golden decade”, a senior publicity official said.

Huang Kunming, executive vice-minister of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said the five BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – have gained valuable governance experience in past years that produced excellent economic growth despite global sluggishness.

Huang made the remarks in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the BRICS Seminar on Governance in Quanzhou, Fujian province. The seminar attracted more than 1,100 representatives, including senior officials, entrepreneurs and researchers.

The economies of the BRICS countries account for nearly a quarter of the world’s total, and they have been the source of more than half of global growth in the past 10 years, Huang said.

“It is of great significance for BRICS countries that are undergoing development at a similar stage and face shared challenges to discuss and learn from each other for a better shared future,” he said.

Huang suggested that the seminar should be a long-term programme, affording space to bring together think tanks and the media to provide intellectual support for common development while expanding the scale of exchanges and cooperation under an environment of more players joining in.

Essop Pahad, a former South African Cabinet minister, said that China’s experiences of reducing poverty could be shared with Africa given that many African countries still have to “continue their battle against poverty, joblessness, inequality, disease, conflict, famine and militarised and gender violence”.