Temer fired up for Xiamen summit

AT THE ninth Brics Summit next week in southeast China’s Xiamen City, Brazil will seek real convergence among the bloc members on economic and financial issues and common challenges, Brazilian President Michel Temer said.

Accompanied by a large delegation of senior officials, Temer will start his trip to China on Tuesday, including a state visit in which he will have a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, besides attending the Brics summit.

“Brazil has fully committed to the preparatory process for the Xiamen summit. In the past few months, we have participated in technical and ministerial meetings in several areas of Brics representatives.

“There is a lot of confidence in China’s capacity to organise the event,” Temer said in an interview with Xinhua.

“I will have an opportunity to personally congratulate President Xi on the Chinese presidency of Brics,” he added.

The Brazilian president praised the summit’s preparatory process and reaffirmed his country’s commitment to strengthening and increasing co-operation among the Brics members.

Opportunity

“We see in Brics a space of dialogue between great countries and an opportunity to promote co-operation for the mutual benefit of our peoples,” he pointed out.

Regarding the summit’s agenda, Temer showed his country’s interest in solid co-operation among the bloc members, particularly regarding their economies.

“Brazil will focus on real convergence in the economic and financial field – including infrastructure financing, investment attraction, regional aviation and customs co-operation – and in areas which represent common challenges such as healthcare, co-operation in intelligence, research and development,” the president said.

He also noted that, in recent years Brics, which groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has made great progress in the group’s institutionalisation process and financial field.

This is especially so with the creation of the New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Fund.

“The New Development Bank is a real example of Brics’s capacity for realisation. The bank allows mobilisation of financial resources in an innovative manner for infrastructural and sustainable development projects, which are both priorities in our countries.

Convergence

“It is necessary that Brics remains focused in areas where there is convergence among its members. And it is necessary that Brics remains committed to generating tangible results for our peoples,” Temer said.

The Brazilian president will also use the summit to promote trade and present to other members his government’s concessions and privatisation programmes, aimed at attracting investments from partner countries.

He also hailed the role that political dialogue among Brics countries plays in global governance and political stability.