Source: Economic Daily
As the rotating chair of the BRICS countries in 2022, China and its BRICS partners drew a new blueprint for high-quality development in late June. President Xi Jinping presided over the 14th BRICS Leaders' Meeting and the High-level Dialogue on Global Development in Beijing, attended the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum and delivered a keynote speech. In this issue, relevant experts are invited to discuss the promotion of BRICS cooperation.
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Xu Xiangmei, director and researcher of the theory department of this newspaper
The BRICS countries have gone through an extraordinary journey of sixteen years
Host: What progress has the BRICS countries made in building cooperation mechanisms since the beginning of the prelude to cooperation?
Jin Xin (Director of the Research Office of the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary-General of the Chinese Council for BRICS Think Tank Cooperation): On June 23, China, as the rotating chairmanship of the BRICS countries, hosted the 14th BRICS Summit. The BRICS Cooperation Mechanism is an important multilateral cooperation mechanism composed of emerging market countries, and its members currently include China, Russia, Brazil, India and South Africa.
In 2001, Jim O'Neill, former chief economist of Goldman Sachs, first proposed the concept of "BRIC countries", referring to four rapidly emerging market countries in China, Russia, Brazil and India. In 2006, the BRICS foreign ministers met for the first time during the UN General Assembly, kicking off the prelude to BRICS cooperation. In June 2009, the BRIC countries held their first leaders' meeting, which elevated cooperation to the level of leaders' meetings. In 2011, the BRICS countries officially accepted South Africa as a member of the BRICS and achieved their first informal meeting during the G20 Summit in Cannes. Since 2009, BRICS leaders have met 13 times and met 9 times informally.
Over the past 16 years, the BRICS cooperation mechanism has been continuously improved, the scope of cooperation has gradually expanded, and a comprehensive and multi-level framework of pragmatic cooperation in dozens of fields, led by leaders' meetings and supported by high-level meetings in various fields, has been formed, with the leadership of leaders' meetings and supported by high-level meetings in various fields, and has carried out pragmatic cooperation in dozens of fields such as economy and trade, finance, science and technology, industry, agriculture, culture, education, health, political parties, think tanks, etc., achieved a series of pioneering cooperation results, and promoted BRICS countries and developing countries to strengthen dialogue and cooperation in various fields through the "BRICS +" model. It has become an important force for emerging market countries and developing countries to unite and strengthen themselves and promote global governance.
In the field of political security, the BRICS countries have continuously consolidated their strategic partnership, relying on mechanisms such as the Meeting of Foreign Ministers, the Meeting of High Representatives for Security Affairs, and consultations among representatives of permanent multilateral institutions, to strengthen communication and coordination on major international and regional issues, to deepen cooperation in the fields of counter-terrorism, outer space, narcotics control, cybersecurity, anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, etc., and to adopt a series of outcome documents such as the BRICS Roadmap for Pragmatic Cooperation on Cybersecurity and the BRICS Action Plan on Counter-Terrorism. Internationally, the BRICS countries jointly practice multilateralism, safeguard international fairness and justice, and firmly uphold the international system with the United Nations at its core, the international order based on international law, and the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. Strengthen coordination and cooperation under the framework of the United Nations, the G20, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other frameworks, work together to promote the improvement of the global governance system and rules, strive to enhance the representation and voice of the vast number of emerging market countries and developing countries, and jointly issue the BRICS Joint Statement on Strengthening and Reforming the Multilateral System in 2021 to promote the construction of a more equitable, just, inclusive, equal and more representative multipolar international system.
In the field of economy, trade and finance, the BRICS countries have continuously strengthened strategic planning, deepened pragmatic cooperation, successively adopted the BRICS Economic Partnership Strategy, the BRICS Economic and Trade Cooperation Action Plan, the BRICS Investment Facilitation Cooperation Outline, the BRICS Roadmap for Cooperation in Trade in Services, etc., to create important mechanisms such as the BRICS New Development Bank and the Emergency Reserve Arrangement, and reached the BRICS Economic Partnership Strategy 2025 in 2020 with a view to the new situation, clarifying trade, investment and finance, digital economy, There are three key areas of cooperation on sustainable development. Among them, as an important cooperation result of the BRICS countries, the New Development Bank will usher in its first expansion and entry into the permanent headquarters building in Shanghai in 2021, and will play a greater role in supporting the infrastructure construction and sustainable development of member countries in the future. In the face of the historic opportunities brought about by the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, the BRICS countries have deeply promoted scientific and technological innovation cooperation, jointly built the BRICS New Industrial Revolution Partnership under the initiative of the Chinese side, and promoted the construction of the BRICS New Industrial Revolution Partnership Innovation Base (Xiamen), injecting new impetus into the five countries to seize the opportunities of the times and achieve high-quality development.
In the field of people-to-people exchanges, in order to enhance people-to-people exchanges among the five countries and build a public opinion foundation for BRICS cooperation, brics countries have continuously strengthened dialogue and cooperation in the fields of governance, political parties, think tanks, culture, education, sports, art, women, youth and other fields, established brics business councils, think tank councils, university alliances, vocational education alliances, women's business alliances, library alliances, art museums alliances and adolescent and children's drama alliances, held BRICS academic forums, civil society organization forums, governance seminars, etc., Friendship Cities and Local Government Cooperation Forum, Youth Summit, Young Scientist Forum, Media High-end Forum, Film Festival, Games, etc. In 2017 and 2022, China creatively held forums on BRICS political parties, think tanks and civil society organizations, inviting leaders of political parties in BRICS countries and some developing countries, as well as representatives of think tanks and civil society organizations, to participate in the meeting, providing an important dialogue platform for BRICS countries to exchange cross-border exchanges and build consensus on cooperation, and achieving positive repercussions in the international community.
This year is the "Year of China" for the BRICS cooperation mechanism. Against the backdrop of the intertwining of the epidemic and the century-old changes, China, together with other BRICS countries, has deepened dialogue and cooperation on practicing multilateralism, uniting to fight the epidemic, promoting economic recovery, promoting efficient and pragmatic cooperation, accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, deepening people-to-people exchanges, and improving mechanism construction, focusing on the theme of "building a high-quality partnership and creating a new era of global development", and promoting the construction of a more comprehensive, close, pragmatic and inclusive high-quality partnership. At the same time, China has also continued the "BRICS+" model, inviting some developing countries to participate in dialogue and exchanges, while realizing the development of the BRICS countries themselves, promoting global development towards a stronger, greener and healthier new era, and continuing to make positive contributions to building a community with a shared future for mankind.
Promote constructive reform of the global financial governance system
Host: What achievements have the BRICS countries made in cooperation in the field of financial governance?
Wang Lei (Deputy Dean of the School of Government and Management of Beijing Normal University, Director of the BRICS Cooperative Research Center): Financial cooperation has always been the focus of BRICS cooperation, and it is also one of the most outstanding areas of the BRICS cooperation process in the past 16 years. Jointly responding to the urgent needs of the global financial crisis, promoting the upgrading of BRICS cooperation and the reform of the global financial governance system have achieved breakthrough results, which has effectively promoted financial cooperation at the multilateral level of member countries.
The concept of BRICS countries is closely related to global financial investment cooperation. In November 2001, Goldman Sachs Proposed in a research report that "the world needs better BRICS countries", believing that the BRICS countries have great potential for development, and their importance to the global economy in the next few decades will increase day by day, and will promote significant changes in the global economic and financial pattern.
The improvement and upgrading of BRICS cooperation is inseparable from the reform of global financial governance. Faced with the severe challenges of the global financial crisis, the BRICS countries hugged the group to warm up to deal with the crisis, the first BRICS leaders' meeting held in 2009 focused on the global macroeconomic situation in the context of the financial crisis and other urgent issues, all countries unanimously decided to promote the reform of international financial institutions, improve the representativeness and voice of emerging market countries and developing countries, and proposed that the reform of the international financial and economic system should follow the four basic principles of democracy and transparency, legal foundation, harmonious relationship between new and old institutions, and attention to practical results.
The BRICS countries have always been committed to reforming and improving the global financial governance system, believing that the IMF and the World Bank should reflect the changes in the world economic structure through reform, and the primary goal of their governance structure reform is to substantially transfer voting rights to emerging market countries and developing countries such as brics countries, which has become one of the major achievements of the first "golden decade" of BRICS cooperation.
Under the unremitting impetus of emerging economies such as the BRICS countries, the World Bank finally passed the reform plan in 2010, and the voting rights of developed countries to developing countries totaled 3.13 percentage points, and the voting rights of the BRICS countries were greatly improved, helping the overall voting rights of developing countries to increase to 47.19%, and China's voting rights increased from 2.77% to 4.42%, becoming the third largest shareholder of the World Bank, and again increased to 5.7% in a new round of adjustment in 2018. At the same time, the voting rights of BRICS countries such as India, Russia and Brazil have also increased. In addition, the IMF's quota and governance reform program was also approved at the end of 2015, with about 6% of the share shifted to emerging market countries and developing countries, and China increased from 4% to 6.39%, ranking among the top three.
As representatives of emerging market countries and developing countries, brics countries continue to strengthen coordination and cooperation under the framework of global multilateral economic and financial trade such as the G20, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the WTO, work together to promote the improvement of the global economic and financial governance system and rules, and continue to promote the completion of the 16th round of IMF quota inspection on schedule to build a solid international financial safety net.
The BRICS countries have promoted constructive changes in the global financial governance system through incremental reforms, and financial cooperation mechanisms such as the New Development Bank and the Emergency Reserve Arrangement have deepened the connotation of BRICS countries' participation in global financial governance.
The establishment and efficient and steady operation of the New Development Bank have become a prominent highlight of BRICS cooperation. The NDB is the first global multilateral development finance institution in human history to be established and operated entirely under the auspices of developing countries, which is of great innovative significance. Since its official operation in 2015, the NDB has provided financing support for infrastructure development and sustainable development in member countries, emerging market countries and other developing countries, becoming a useful complement to existing global and regional financial institutions. As of May this year, the NDB has approved more than US$30 billion and 84 loan projects covering clean energy, transportation, water resources and sanitation, digital infrastructure and other fields. The New Development Bank has set up regional centers in South Africa, Brazil, Russia and India, and has recruited four new members from Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay and Egypt, gradually benefiting more emerging market countries and developing countries.
As an important mechanism to complement the existing international monetary and financial arrangements, the BRICS Emergency Reserve Arrangement has completed four exercises since its establishment in 2014 to provide liquidity for member countries through currency swaps to cope with short-term imbalances in payments, gradually strengthen framework coordination with the IMF, and provide new momentum for the improvement of the global financial governance system and international financial stability and security. The BRICS countries have also strengthened financial cooperation in the fields of development bank-to-bank cooperation, public-private cooperation, bilateral currency swaps and local currency bond funds of member countries, effectively promoting the reform of the global financial governance system.
The BRICS countries originated from financial investment, are interested in multi-level cooperation among member states in the financial field, are committed to promoting constructive changes in the global financial governance system, and will make outstanding contributions to deepening a more equal and balanced global partnership for development, strengthening international financial security and promoting world economic recovery.
Make an important contribution to global governance and its reform
Host: What is the role of the BRICS countries in participating in and promoting global governance reform?
Lin Yueqin (Professor, School of Government and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, member of the Chinese Council for BRICS Think Tank Cooperation): As a multilateral structural mechanism for the international community to jointly deal with cross-border issues, global governance provides a platform and opportunity for all actors to participate in solving related problems, safeguarding their rights and interests, and demonstrating their international influence. For latecomers to global governance, by actively participating in global governance and promoting its rationalization and reform, brics countries will help to change their weak position in the global governance system, enhance their voice, and create a good institutional environment for successful rise. BRICS countries are increasingly consciously participating in global governance and promoting their transition in a more fair, reasonable and effective direction.
First, we have always adhered to a new view of global governance. The BRICS countries adhere to the UN Charter and authority and the international order of fairness and justice, and the concept of consultation, joint construction and sharing advocated by China was formally defined as the concept of global economic governance by the resolution of the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2017.
Second, actively propose a new plan for global governance reform. BRICS countries have actively put forward propositions and practical solutions in global development, poverty governance, global security, climate governance, digital economy and other aspects, such as the "Belt and Road" initiative proposed by China, which has become a popular international public good, and has been widely supported and participated in by more than 100 countries and international organizations; In September 2021, China launched the "Global Development Initiative" at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, which is of great significance to promoting global equality and balanced sustainable development. In April this year, China put forward the "Global Security Initiative" at the Boao Forum, which was also widely recognized. In particular, in promoting the governance of the global digital economy, in 2017, the BRICS leaders proposed the initiative to establish internationally applicable cybersecurity and data protection rules in the Xiamen Declaration, and in September 2020, China proposed the Global Data Security Initiative.
Third, the contribution to global governance and its reforms is becoming increasingly significant. Over the past 10 years, brics countries have contributed more than 50% to global economic growth, making great contributions to global poverty control and development problems, promoting the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and accumulating replicable successful experience; China has provided substantial assistance and support to developing countries through the establishment of the "South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund", the "China-Africa Development Fund" and the "Silk Road Fund"; In terms of global public health governance, the BRICS countries set up vaccine research and development centers, provided more than 1 billion doses of vaccines through the "COVID-19 Vaccine Implementation Plan", and China donated a total of US$50 million to WHO twice, and donated US$100 million to the Global Anti-epidemic Fund and provided 2 billion doses of vaccines; The contribution of BRICS countries, especially China and India, to UN peacekeeping operations and UN contributions has continued to increase, and China has made the greatest debt relief commitment for developing countries under the framework of the G20; In terms of global climate governance, BRICS countries have made great contributions to the conclusion of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement, as well as to urging developed countries to fulfill their responsibilities to developing countries and implement synergistic positions.
Fourth, create a public platform for global governance. In order to solve the existing serious deficit in global financial governance and the shortcomings of platform institutions, in addition to its headquarters in Shanghai, China, NDB has opened four regional centers in South Africa, Brazil, Russia and India, and carried out the first round of expansion in September 2021. In recent years, China has successively undertaken the construction of the United Nations Humanitarian Response Center, the United Nations International Research Center for Big Data for Sustainable Development, and the United Nations Global Geographic Information Knowledge and Innovation Center, and its ability to participate in the creation of a public platform for multilateral governance has been increasing.
In the face of effectively resolving major issues in global governance, the world is full of expectations for the BRICS countries to promote and lead the reform of global governance.
The first is to strengthen cooperation in addressing global public health challenges. Further accelerate the construction of brics vaccine research and development centers, enhance the prevention and control capacity of infectious diseases and technical cooperation in vaccine and drug research and development, and carry out vaccine assistance, financial and technical support under the WHO framework.
The second is to accelerate the institutionalization of BRICS cooperation. Accelerate the improvement and perfection of its own organizational system, promote and do a solid job in the construction of the "BRICS +" mechanism, appropriately expand the number of personnel when conditions are ripe, and strengthen the organizational camp.
The third is to steadily increase its contribution to global development. Strengthen economic policy coordination under the framework of the G20, deepen cooperation in economic and trade and digital innovation, and build the Xiamen BRICS New Industrial Revolution Innovation Base into a model for sustainable innovation and cooperation development.
The fourth is to accelerate the pace of rationalization and reform of global governance. Take the initiative to propose reasonable reform initiatives and feasible solutions, and propose new standards and new rules in the fields of digital economy governance, data security, and artificial intelligence.
Promote high-quality partnerships
Host: How to strengthen the construction of the BRICS cooperation mechanism and cooperation with each other, promote the construction of high-quality partnerships, and create a new era of global development?
Shen Yi (Director of the BRICS Research Base of Fudan University): In today's world, the century-old changes and the century epidemic are intertwined, and the factors of instability, uncertainty and insecurity in the international situation are becoming increasingly prominent. Various forces have launched a complex game around the question of "where is the world going", and the BRICS countries have become the key force to promote the benign change of the global order. At this historic moment, it is undoubtedly of vital significance to continue to strengthen the leading role of the BRICS national strategy and create a new era of global development.
In terms of economic volume and country size, the total economic volume of the BRICS countries accounts for 23% of the world, trade in goods accounts for 18%, attracting foreign investment accounts for 25%, the land area accounts for 26.46% of the world's total territory, and the population accounts for 42.58% of the world's total population. Judging from the development process since the 1990s, the BRICS countries represent the unremitting efforts of the vast number of developing countries and emerging market countries to continuously explore development models and development paths that meet their own characteristics and continue to achieve mass rise. From the perspective of geographical location, historical and cultural background, the BRICS countries, as typical representatives of the vast number of developing countries and emerging market countries on the global multilateral stage, have continued to make positive contributions to promoting the benign reform of the global order. Since its inception to 2017, the BRICS countries have objectively formed a "three-wheel drive" endogenous dynamic mechanism for economic, political and people-to-people exchanges, promoting benign and stable changes in the global order, which is the basic development model of the BRICS countries in the first decade. At present, in the face of profound changes in the balance of forces in the international system, the BRICS countries should focus on deepening high-quality cooperation and make greater contributions to global development.
First, we should continue to strengthen political and security cooperation in depth and contribute to the brics force of the times to safeguard peace and development. The continuous deepening of BRICS cooperation in the political and security fields has injected new impetus into the theme of the times of peace and development. For the BRICS countries, it has become a basic consensus to replace confrontation with dialogue, coercion with consultation, alliance with partnership, and zero-sum with win-win results. BRICS countries should strengthen pragmatic cooperation on major geopolitical and security issues, further deepen cooperation on non-traditional security issues such as responding to the COVID-19 epidemic and maintaining and ensuring global financial security, and implement the BRICS Roadmap for Pragmatic Cooperation in Cyber Security, which will also provide impetus for BRICS countries to strengthen in-depth cooperation in frontier fields such as biomedicine.
Second, we will continue to focus on pragmatic cooperation in the economic, trade and financial fields to lay a solid foundation for the healthy and sustainable development of the BRICS countries and the global economy. The scale, volume and comparative advantages of the BRICS countries in the economic and trade fields are becoming increasingly prominent, and data from the General Administration of Customs of China show that the trade volume between China and Brazil will be about 164 billion US dollars in 2021, a record high; The trade volume between China and Russia was 146.887 billion US dollars, an increase of 35.8% year-on-year; China's trade with India also reached $125.6 billion, which is the first time that bilateral trade has exceeded the $100 billion mark; The total trade between China and South Africa reached US$54.35 billion, an increase of 50.7% year-on-year. Further deepening trade and investment facilitation among BRICS members is a unique way for BRICS countries to contribute to maintaining stable global economic growth. From a practical point of view, the rapid development of the digital economy represented by e-commerce has provided a new incentive mechanism for long-term economic and trade cooperation between BRICS countries. Solidly promoting the roadmap related to the new industrial revolution partnership formulated by the BRICS Xiamen Summit will promote in-depth and sustained cooperation among BRICS countries in the economic and trade fields.
Third, strengthen effective cooperation in the field of people-to-people exchanges. People-to-people exchanges among brics countries provide an important demonstration for the world, and even different cultures and civilizations with highly differentiated characteristics can achieve positive interaction and inclusive development through active exchanges and mutual reference. Globally, the BRICS countries have established the image of countries with different historical and cultural backgrounds through university alliances, online universities, vocational education cooperation and colorful people-to-people exchange activities. It is recommended to further increase mutual understanding and inject new impetus into a diverse global culture.
At a critical moment in the course of world history, the BRICS countries will play a more active role in the benign development of economic globalization.
The first is to strengthen cooperation in the political and security fields. The BRICS countries will form a more robust and systematic coordination mechanism in maintaining and guaranteeing regional security and stability, improving and consolidating the non-proliferation mechanism, and responding to the challenges of non-traditional security threats marked by biosecurity.
The second is to strengthen development cooperation focusing on the digital economy. Focusing on the information technology revolution and the implementation of the new industrial revolution partnership, we will steadily promote various work.
The third is to improve and expand people-to-people exchange activities with BRICS characteristics. Promote mutual understanding among BRICS countries and make greater contributions to global multicultural prosperity.