South African economist hails BRICS cooperation for mutual benefit

Johannesburg, SA | Xinhua | Through its many initiatives, BRICS countries seeks to improve the world’s financial architecture and systems of trade and investment so as to strengthen economic performances of countries in the Global South, said Kenneth Creamer, a senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand.

BRICS is the acronym for five emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The concept of BRIC was coined in 2001 and it turned into a formal cooperation framework in 2006. Four years later, South Africa joined the bloc to make it BRICS.

Representing over 40 percent of the world’s population, BRICS countries have a number of programs for fostering international cooperation, which have brought significant economic gains for countries including China and South Africa, Creamer said Friday at the launching of a joint research on Chinese enterprises’ investment confidence index, which was held by Bank of China Johannesburg Branch and the University of the Witwatersrand.

“Since the first high level meetings of Brazil, Russia, India and China in 2006, and the inclusion of South Africa in 2010, BRICS has become an important grouping in the global economy,” said Creamer, who is also a member of South Africa’s presidential economic advisory council.

The global environment has become challenging in recent years as the world has experienced severe economic shocks including those arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, he noted, adding that an important compass for BRICS in navigating through these ever-changing waters is to remain true to its original mission of promoting mutually beneficial cooperation and working to transform the world economic order into one that is fairer and more inclusive.

“In a sense, this original mission is a global application of the vision for ‘common prosperity’ which China has been advocating,” Creamer said.

As South Africa is set to host the BRICS summit in August, there has been ongoing engagement between South Africa and business councils and chambers of other BRICS member states in order to explore economic opportunities, he said.

Noting that there is a strong linkage between the economies of South Africa and China, Creamer said China is a major trading partner for the country as 10 percent of South African exports were made to China in 2022.

“In recent weeks, South Africa exported a much larger amount of maize to China than the country has done in the past, indicating that China may in future offer a potential growing export market for a range of South African agricultural goods,” Creamer said.