Beijing- The rise of BRICS has become much more prominent since the 2008 financial crisis. Wu Xueming, Assistant Director from Institute of World Economy, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences pointed out that this trend will continue for a long time, which is a basis for in-depth cooperation within the five BRICS countries as well as a force in the international system transformation.

Data show that the proportion of BRICS’ economic aggregate, incoming foreign capital, foreign investment and international trade of the global total enjoys a quick rise: sharply from 8.2%, 5.7%, 0.6% and 6.9% in 2000 to 21.4%, 20.9%, 14.2% and 17.4% in 2013.

“BRICS’ international economic status and influence has achieved all-round ascension, along with its 46.2% of the world’s population and 40% of the world’s foreign exchange reserves, it enjoys great market capacity and investment potential,” said Wu Xueming.

Wu pointed out that the establishment of BRICS Development Bank and the CRA, which provides a new options for regional governance, is not to weaken the existing international system, but a beneficial complement to the current global economic and financial mechanism.“The five BRICS countries should actively promote their interactions with G20 and other emerging economies so as to deeply involve in global governance.

Besides, internal cooperation within the BRICS and domestic transformation and upgrading within each country is also urgent and of great significance. Wu said, Fu Lai Tulsa Declaration which was announced during the Sixth Meeting of the BRICS Leaders shows that the five BRICS countries will continue to expand their cooperation areas including a lot of development and security issues. They will also exchange views on regional hotspot such as Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Israel-Palestine issues and climate change, energy security, food security, network security and other global problems.

The relatively most specific cooperation within BRICS is financial cooperation which is also expected to carry out soon, with the birth of BRICS Development Bank and the CRA. What will happen to China as the bank eventually headquartered in this country?“It will provide a lot of testing platform and opportunity for China on the aspect of top-level design of international cooperation mechanism, operational management of international agencies, introduction and training of specialized personnel and senior management personnel as well as construction of service and support system,” said Wu,“all of these, after being fully tested, can be replicated and spread to other areas in the future.”

What will bring to Shanghai? Wu noted that Shanghai, as the location of BRICS Bank’s headquarter will be equipped with scarce strategic opportunity for the city’s long-term development including leading and demonstrating role of the international institutions on the management concept, development of financial and related industry as well as the accumulative effect of high-end talents. Financial cooperation within BRICS, in this way, will interactively be promoted with Shanghai’s construction of ‘Four Centers’, SFTZ,"Two Belts" Construction and other national strategy.

By Jiang Wenran