The eighth BRICS summit was held in Goa, India, from Oct 15 to 16 this year, with the theme of Building Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions. One highlight of this year’s summit is mechanism building.

The BRICS member nations have formed an all-dimensional, multi-tiered system for cooperative governance. At the top of the system is the Leaders Summit, which provides political and strategic guidance. Then there are ministerial meetings that draw together ministers of security, foreign affairs, finance, trade, agriculture, health and others. Next, there are senior officials’ meetings and working group meetings that offer technical support in areas like state-owned enterprises, anti-corruption campaigns, population, technology, economy and trade, culture, agriculture, administration of justice, and urbanization.

Moreover, there are supplementary cooperative mechanisms, like the BRICS Think Tanks Council, the Business Council, friendship cities and the local governments cooperation forum, the Think-Tank Forum, and the Business Forum, which provide intellectual assistance and build public support. The BRICS Ufa Summit last year adopted the Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership, which laid out a trade, economic and investment cooperation roadmap to guide the bloc from 2015 to 2020. The Goa Summit will expand the scope of this strategy while strengthening mechanisms in finance, trade and interpersonal exchanges.

In finance, the BRICS Bank and the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement are the two biggest outcomes. The Goa Summit will continue to support the development of the BRICS Bank. This year, the bank announced a $911 million investment in renewable energy in BRICS members. In terms of building partnerships with outside parties, the BRICS Bank has signed agreements with the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, aiming for future financing. To improve the BRICS Bank’s own mechanisms, environment and social framework, a number of measures have been implemented, including policies on information disclosure and procurement. The bank is on a regularized track of development.

In economy and trade, BRICS members have made progress in implementing the BRICS Trade and Investment Cooperation Framework as well as exploring and innovating in direction and forms for mutually beneficial cooperation. The markets have opened further and policies have been made more transparent.

This year’s summit emphasized areas like intellectual property rights, service, trade promotion, e-commerce, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises. Meanwhile, the member countries will explore more equitable and inclusive ways developing countries can participate in formulating global trade and economy regulations. All members recognize the central role the WTO plays in world multilateral trade mechanisms based on rules and characterized by openness, transparency, nondiscrimination and inclusiveness. They stressed that they would implement the outcomes reached by the Ministers of Trade in Bali and Nairobi, and called upon WTO members to step up efforts to promote work on the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.
 

 

In terms of interpersonal exchanges, from July 1 to 3, the BRICS International Youth Forum took place in Guwahati, India. All member countries have been encouraged to pay attention to the role of the youth in the development of techniques and entrepreneurship, social integration, volunteering and national governance. They also agreed to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in these areas. On Sept. 10, the BRICS Health Technology Forum was held in Bangalore, at which participants discussed such topics as health indicators, trade in biological resources and cooperation in traditional medicine. On Sept. 19, the BRICS Academic Forum was held in Goa to provide policy suggestions for member countries in global governance, geopolitics, trade, energy security, gender equality, sustainable development and other fields.

 

Zhu Jiejin is a research fellow from the Center for BRICS Studies at Fudan University.