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BRICS stand a chance to impact the world if leaders have foresight to expand the bloc

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South Africa will play host to the 2018 BRICS summit to be held in Johannesburg, the economic heartbeat of the country. Heads of states from the BRICS members  namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will converge under one roof from the 25th to 27th July to take stock of their previous undertakings and thrash out a collective future comprising common interests.

This is the emerging force threatening to reconfigure the international world order as we know it. All the five members of the BRICS bloc are categorized as emerging economies, thereby signifying the potential of a future socio- economic and political powerhouse. To ignore BRICS, therefore, is to be downright unwise.

For the uninitiated, BRICS member-states annually engages at three different but crucial levels. The first, of course, is at the formal diplomatic level  between the government. Another tier of cooperation is to be found in the area of State-owned enterprises followed by probably the very important level of civil society, where ordinary people-to-people cooperation is the epicenter of human relations.

This is particularly vital in a globalizing world, where technological development has linked humans in ways never seen prior to the dawn of the digital age. BRICS momentum has been increasing in recent years. Over the last year alone the bloc has managed to hold no less than one hundred sectoral  meetings! As for South Africa, as a host country Pretoria has an added advantage of placing on the agenda matters of pure personal interest over and above what is agreed upon. There can be no better advantage.

But the BRICS bloc ought to be alive to the inherent causal factors that lead to failure. Among this is the active pursuit of doom-sayers of a narrative that seeks to undermine the noble objectives of the BRICS bloc, particularly as a united front.

Thus decisions that the bloc takes need to be followed on and implemented. Among issues coming to mind is the BRICS Bank. Quite noticeably, such a bank stands in stark contrast to the much established World Bank or the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Whereas the latter are known for their strict lending regime, such as structural adjustment, BRICS  Bank should be more convivial with its members seeking to access the bank’s assistance. Such ought to be the benefits of a BRICS membership.

There is a great potential for economic development of immeasurable proportions. For example, China is the world’s second largest economy after the US, a position reached after decades of exponential growth. Russia, another key BRICS member, is a first world economy which has shown great resilience in the wake of punishing EU sanctions over political differences.

But there is a hidden power behind the membership to BRICS of both China and Russia, which I have previously hammered on. I repeat: The two are part of the only five permanent members of the UN Security Council and thus possess a powerful tool better known as Veto power.

Now, that could be used as one of the greatest economic and political returns for the rest of the other BRICS members. In fact, the BRICS bloc needs to consider expanding their size by recruiting new like-minded emerging democracies. In Africa, two candidates who come to mind are the continent’s biggest economy, Nigeria and the fast-developing Rwanda. I am certain that there are other potential candidates waiting in queue in the Americas, Asia and Europe.

If the BRICS bloc does not use its unique strengths, its competitive edge will come to naught. And, sadly, it will pose no threat to the global status quo. The BRICS bloc need not be seen as a threat to any bloc’s comfort. It need to be viewed as breaking of new ground, seizure of new opportunities and a welcome impetus in the much-needed reconfiguration of the international world order.

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