Africa -China Review Africa -China Cooperation and Transformation
Published: August 27,2023
The BRICS group has the ability to lead a broad global development process, improve the current global economic system and address its problems and crises, an Egyptian business expert has said.
“BRICS, with its economic, financial and technological capabilities and clear future vision, has the power and ability to lead the world towards a broad development process and make the global economic system more just and equitable,” said Abdel-Sattar Eshrah, secretary-general of the Cairo-based Egyptian-Chinese Business Council, in a recent interview with Xinhua.
Eshrah made the remarks while BRICS, a group of major emerging economies comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa then, was holding its 15th summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. “The global economic system, with its crises and challenges, has negatively affected the lives of people worldwide, which highlights the importance of BRICS to restore a great deal of global economic stability,” the expert said. Eshrah, also a counselor of the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce, stressed that BRICS can help many emerging economies achieve higher rates of growth and development.
As per data released earlier this year from Acorn Macro Consulting, a British economic research firm, the BRICS group makes up 41 percent of the global population and accounts for 16 percent of world trade. The five BRICS countries now contribute about a quarter of the global GDP. “BRICS countries enjoy very high productivity, large GDP, advanced technological boom and enormous manpower, in addition to their huge volume of trade exchanges across the world,” Eshrah said. The economic bloc, he said, is achieving “great and continuous success” in a short time, which motivates other countries to seek membership in the hope of sharing the success and benefit from cooperation with BRICS members.
At the just-concluded BRICS summit, six countries, namely Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, were officially invited to join the BRICS. Their membership will take effect in Jan. 1, 2024.
Eshrah attributed the aspiration of many countries to join BRICS to the principles of its members’ foreign policies that are based on win-win cooperation and mutual respect with other countries. “Many countries find the gathering peaceful and fair, which is why it’s very welcomed by many peoples of the world,” he told Xinhua.
Egypt has also joined the Shanghai-based New Development Bank established by BRICS, a move considered by Eshrah as “a very good indicator.” Eshrah expressed his belief that the expansion of BRICS membership in a well-studied manner “would increase its strength and effectiveness and enhance its regional and international role, in a way that contributes to achieving greater and faster development rates.” “It would create many opportunities for joint cooperation among BRICS members in various fields,” Eshrah said. The expansion of BRICS membership is likely to boost the abilities of its members to face economic, financial and political crises and challenges, according to the expert.
Xinhua
