Bond of BRICS grows stronger, benefiting whole world

Over the course of the past 11 years, the bond between the BRICS members -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has kept growing stronger.

Together, they have achieved a lot for their people and the world. And more is to come.

In fiscal and financial areas, the five countries are set to strengthen international tax cooperation and financial regulatory collaboration, establish an improved network of financial services institutions, and set up a cooperation framework for public private partnerships, agreed BRICS finance ministers and central bank governors at a meeting in Shanghai in June.

Local currency bond markets in BRICS countries will be advanced, and efforts will be made to converge accounting and auditing standards. Measures will also be taken to protect against liquidity pressures and fight against money laundering and financing of terrorism.

The New Development Bank (NDB), a key BRICS institution that was established in Shanghai in 2015, has seen good results in the last two years.

In 2016, the bank granted 1.5 billion dollars in loans to seven projects, mostly concerning green energy and infrastructure. From 2017 to 2018, the NDB has 23 projects at various stages, with a total lending amount of six billion U.S. dollars.

Meanwhile, BRICS countries will increase cooperation in innovation, encouraging cooperation among science parks and strengthening training for technology transfer.

An action plan for innovation cooperation issued Tuesday put emphasis on the younger generation by encouraging BRICS countries to promote partnerships on youth innovation and entrepreneurship for pragmatic cooperation and establish inter-BRICS investment instruments.

Senior BRICS environment officials also pledged to continue the sustainable use of the rich biodiversity of BRICS countries to achieve the internationally agreed targets and goals.

The five countries have also vowed in the past months in a number of ministerial-level meetings to enhance cooperation in areas like food security, health care, culture and sports.

Upholding the spirit of partnership that features openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation, the BRICS is ready welcome the like-minded.

The NDB has said it intends to operate at scale, and is now designing criteria and a strategy to expand membership to new countries in its general strategy for 2017-2021.

The expansion, said the bank, will ensure geographic diversity and a reasonable mix of advanced, middle- and lower-income countries.

Absorbing more countries in development discussion and partnership building will help turn BRICS into the most influential platform for South-South cooperation.

The five countries are home to 42 percent of the world's population. Their total share in the global economy has risen from 12 percent to 23 percent in the past decade while contributing more than half of global growth.

Making the BRICS stronger not only benefit people of these countries, but also the whole world.