BRICS countries should further strengthen their economic and trade cooperation, improve their cooperation mechanisms, create new cooperation measures and explore new driving forces for development, asserted Commerce Minister Zhong Shan during the 7th BRICS trade ministers conference in Shanghai on Aug 1.

BRICS overlaps with the Belt and Road routes geographically. For instance, Russia, a country on the Belt and Road land route, has close economic and trade ties with China and is also a key BRICS member. Thus, the fruits of their trade cooperation can benefit implementation of Belt and Road projects.

The Belt and Road Initiative looks to build "five connective elements" with a view to creating a community of nations with a common destiny. The five aspects involve policy consultation, infrastructure, free trade, free circulation of local currencies, and people-to-people links, among which connectivity of infrastructure, trade and currencies are common aspirations of the BRICS countries as well. In this sense, promoting BRICS cooperation can also advance Belt and Road construction, and vice versa, Bai Ming, a ministry researcher in international market studies said.

Acting on China's proposal, BRICS countries will explore the feasibility of establishing electronic port networks, setting up a trade services cooperation roadmap, strengthening e-commerce cooperation, and putting forward an action plan on intellectual property rights cooperation, said Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen.

Today, the BRICS countries combined account for 23 percent of global GDP, 16 percent of world trade and 12 percent of the world's investment flows, while contributing half of world economic growth.