BRICS leading the way to better global governance

The anti-globalization trend has swept the world with Black Swan events in recent years, while emerging countries, especially BRICS, performing as rising powers on the global stage with their own unique development patterns, lead global governance and prop up world economic growth.

As President Xi Jinping pointed out, the global governance structure depends on the variation of the world’s balance of powers. The end of the Cold War terminated the dual structure of developed and developing formulated since the industrial revolution.

A new ternary structure has replaced it, which consists of developed countries (finance and technology), emerging countries (manufacturing) and developing countries (primary products). The BRICS countries spread over four continents and both hemispheres naturally has geographical advantages. BRICS countries cover 29.6 percent of the planet’s land, contain 42.6 percent of the global population and account for 23 percent of global GDP. The trade volume among BRICS countries has increased from $9.3 billion in 2006 to $24.4 billion in 2015. In 2016, China and India achieved 6.7 percent and 6.6 percent year-on-year GDP growth respectively.

Now the G20 has replaced the G7 to play the leading role in global governance. And the rise of BRICS countries is actually changing the world order.

Despite the flaws of unfair global trade and the financial system monopolized by international capital, the calling for equality, respect for each other’s sovereignty, territorial integrity as stipulated by the UN Charter, has gradually reshaped the international community.

The global governance system needs reform, just as Xi said. We should seize the momentum and opportunity to guide the international order toward a more rational and fair way, in order to better respect and protect the will and interests of developing countries, including China.

The mechanism of BRICS countries has gradually developed from an economic concept to an international economic cooperation platform. In 2013, BRICS decided to set up the New Development Bank and the Contingency Agreement Fund. During the BRICS summit of 2015, they further negotiated with the Eurasian Economic Union and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Along with these two organizations and other multilateral cooperation networks like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, Mercosur and the Southern African Development Community, BRICS leads the global governance and reform drive in the international order. The idea of “BRICS Plus” put forward by China has been widely recognized, and the number of members has reached 35, which shows BRICS countries strong support for reshaping global governance.

In July 2014, Xi put forward the need to deepen BRICS partnerships in the spirit of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation. The spirit of BRICS would inject new momentum to construct the open world economy. For over a decade, BRICS has already accomplished wideranging achievements in areas like politics, economics, finance, trade and humanity, and established over 60 cooperative mechanisms.

Also BRICS has bridged the dialogue, between North and South and fostered SouthSouth cooperation. There exists strong economic complementarity among the five countries of BRICS have constructed a complete international economic system to offer an example that could be learned by other countries.

BRICS has shouldered their responsibilities of offering more public products, just like the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, which is supported by over 100 countries and regions. On May 14, Xi pledged that China will scale up financing support for the initiative by contributing an additional 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) to the Silk Road Fund, and it encourages financial institutions to conduct overseas renminbi funded business with an estimated amount of about 300 billion yuan. The China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China will set up special lending programs respectively worth 250 billion yuan equivalent and 130 billion yuan equivalent to support Belt and Road cooperation on infrastructure, industrial capacity and financing.

BRICS, along with other multilateral regimes among emerging economies, shows China and the other developed countries’ joint commitment to pursue a community of shared destiny based on equality and mutual benefit.

BRICS has shouldered its responsibilities of offering more public products.

The author is director of the Research Institute of Globalization and China’s Modernization, University of International Business and Economics

Wang Zhimin