BRICS has bright prospects

At the BRICS summit for finance ministers and central bankers in Germany's southwestern city of Baden-Baden on Friday, China promised to work with the other BRICS members to actively push forward their financial cooperation ahead of the group's ninth leaders' meeting, which will be held in the coastal city of Xiamen in East China's Fujian province in September.

The ever-increasing financial coordination and cooperation among the members of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have contributed a lot to economic growth of the BRICS members, and indeed the rest of the world, as well as the promotion of fairer global economic governance.

But rising protectionism, the growing anti-globalization trend and increasing geopolitical uncertainties have made the external economic environment for the emerging economies more difficult, some of which face relatively big downturn pressures due to their own economic structural problems. This highlights the need for the BRICS countries to strengthen their solidarity and cooperation to safeguard their common interests.

The pragmatic approach of the BRICS countries has laid a solid foundation for their financial cooperation. And a series of landmark achievements made by BRICS countries, such as the establishment of the New Development Bank for infrastructure funding and Contingent Reserve Arrangement to provide support to address actual or potential short-term balance of payments pressures, offer vital platforms for enhancing and deepening the financial cooperation among the BRICS members.

What China should do next is to further promote the existing cooperation mechanisms of BRICS, explore cooperation in public-private partnerships, and boost the convergence of accounting standards for issuing bonds, in a bid to lift current financial cooperation to a new level.

Past cooperation experiences indicate that the BRICS countries can overcome any possible difficulties, promote steady cooperation and forge a brighter future if they maintain mutual trust and consolidate their belief in the grouping.

(China Daily USA 03/21/2017 page11)