Debate: BRIC
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Will the BRIC countries coordinated mechanisms bring international cooperation into action? How seriously should analysts take the term BRIC? Two experts express their views.
Global cooperation thick as BRIC
Gina Caballero
An ingenious idea takes on a life of its own. Thinking globalization was not going nor is supposed to be Americanization, Jim O'Neill envisioned the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). These four non-Western countries' economic prowess and keenness to embrace global markets buttressed his belief that their future economic weight would reorganize world policymaking forums. So after the BRIC nations began trading in the banking sector, the four countries decided to bolster the label by grouping together.
This not only reflects their understanding of globalization, albeit a socio-economic process enriched by different civilizations' philosophical traditions, but also their initiative to lead that process into the creation of a new multilateral, equitable and democratic world order. The tenets of such a world order are no other than the principles under which the four countries have held their meetings: mutual respect, equality and shared benefits.
In April, BRIC heads of state gathered again in Brasilia for their second summit to advocate cooperation, coordinated action and collective decision-making of all the states. As emerging economic engines expected to add most of the 2 billion people who are estimated to join the global middle class by 2030, BRIC move in tandem with the developing world in pursuit of common development and prosperity.
To enhance developing countries' growth potential and fight against poverty, BRIC countries, as declared in their joint statement "support technical and financial cooperation as a means to contribute to the achievement of sustainable social development, with social protection, full employment, and decent work policies and programs". Joint efforts and actions to improve the living conditions of people in the developing world are part of the BRIC nations' commitment to lift them into stable secured lives.
Bringing in more people into the growing global middle class will move forward the sense of shared ownership, distinctive of a multi-polar world order. Moreover, it will continue to clear out the via media for countries in the periphery to gradually root out inequality and social exclusion that result from the present world stratification system.
To do so, the four countries could innovate different frameworks with their appropriate platforms to promote the common interests of emerging market economies and developing countries. Within, the four countries already developing these types of engagement mechanisms, as the first BRIC think tank seminar held alongside the second BRIC summit testifies. The BRIC + IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) business forum, too, is a sign of the concerted efforts being made to reach out through dialogue and cooperation other important players in today's world.
It is therefore possible, to build a comprehensively strategic issue-by-issue network with the developing world. Based on experiences, the BRIC countries could extend the forums to invite other developing countries to discuss a wide range of issues. For example, the BRIC countries designed a platform for women of other developing countries, including China, to come together and, through South-South cooperation, formulate proposals for an integrated gender approach in macroeconomic policies. The platform was based on the IBSA Women's Forum, held before the fourth IBSA summit on April 15.
Furthermore, to pragmatically promote international cooperation on financial and trade issues, terrorism, food security, energy, climate change and sustainable development, the BRIC nations could draw more frameworks for building a bridge between developed and developing countries.
On the issue of sustainable development, a BRIC + 5 (Japan, Germany, Singapore, Canada and Australia) sustainable technologies platform would, through the sharing of environmentally sound technology and successful local experiences, address in concrete terms the challenges and constraints the BRIC countries still face in cultivating a green economy.
Continuing to build a far stretch bridge towards a truly mutually beneficial and multilateral world system, the BRIC countries could then meet with, for instance, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Turkey under a BRIC + 5 sustainable development platform, to follow up on the relevant technologies and lessons learned from their previous BRIC + 5 sustainable technologies meeting. In this way - providing a participative mechanism for discussing and exchanging green development modes - the countries could adapt to their specific national characteristics and socio-economic conditions. Like economic spillovers do, these sustainable technologies and practices, too, could spill over into the regions of the five developing countries.
Hence, while the BRIC nations open up more round tables of specific issues for discussion, they could gradually start opening dialogues with other developing countries to share developmental practices and views on mutual interests and concerns.
With this political structure, the BRIC countries will advance the active participation of the developing world in global governance. And through exemplary South-South cooperation, they can set the guideline for developed countries to interact with them. Leading the developing world, the BRIC countries' strategic coordinated mechanisms could bring international cooperation into action. This can only herald the coming on of a multi-polar harmonious world system.
The author is the Beijing academic correspondent of Colombia-based research center Asia Pacific Observatory and runs LatinChina Network for Development, an NGO that promotes common understanding and active cooperation between China and Latin America.
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