BRICS Business Forum 2022

Why in the News?

• The 2022 BRICS Business Forum was held in an Hybrid format (online plus offline) in Beijing.

About

• In his address, PM Modi underscored the “very important” role of BRICS countries in post-pandemic economic recovery worldwide. He also highlighted the rapid growth of the digital economy in India

• BRICS is an acronym for the grouping of the world’s leading emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa

• The BRICS Leaders’ Summit is convened annually

Structure

• BRICS does not exist in the form of organization, but it is an annual summit between the supreme leaders of five nations

• The Chairmanship of the forum is rotated annually among the members, in accordance with the acronym B-R-I-C-S

• BRICS cooperation in the past decade has expanded to include an annual programme of over 100 sectoral meetings

Salient Features

• Together, BRICS accounts for about 40% of the world’s population and about 30% of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product), making it a critical economic engine

• It’s an emerging investment market and global power bloc

• The acronym “BRICS” was initially formulated in 2001 by economist Jim O’Neill, of Goldman Sachs, in a report on growth prospects for the economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China – which together represented a significant share of the world’s production and population

• In 2006, the four countries initiated a regular informal diplomatic coordination, with annual meetings of Foreign Ministers at the margins of the General Debate of the UN General Assembly (UNGA)

• This successful interaction led to the decision that the dialogue was to be carried out at the level of Heads of State and Government in annual Summits

Objectives

• The BRICS seeks to deepen, broaden and intensify cooperation within the grouping and among the individual countries for more sustainable, equitable and mutually beneficial development

• BRICS takes into consideration each member’s growth, development and poverty objectives to ensure relations are built on the respective country’s economic strengths and to avoid competition where possible

• BRICS is emerging as a new and promising political-diplomatic entity with diverse objectives, far beyond the original objective of reforming global financial institutions