Think tanks will work to play a positive role in deepening cooperation among BRICS members in strengthening global governance and meeting universal challenges, according to a commerce official and a think tank organizer.
With the approach of the 2017 BRICS Summit in Xiamen, Fujian province, experts on the economy and trade from higher education institutions and research institutes in China met in Beijing on Monday to share their views and vision for forging closer economic ties among BRICS members.
Chen Chao, an official from the department of international trade and economic affairs at the Ministry of Commerce, said think tanks and international organizations have been involved in China's efforts to boost cooperation among BRICS members.
"In some meetings held this year, we invited some of the representatives from think tanks to participate, creating opportunities for them to interact with officials and representatives from BRICS countries, which generated very inspiring outcomes," he said.
Gu Xueming, director of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, a Beijing-based think tank that organized the meeting of domestic think tanks, said BRICS members have made great contributions to the development of the world economy since the cooperation mechanism was established a decade ago.
"During the past 10 years, cooperation of BRICS members in trade and the economy has made great progress, despite the world economy encountering a series of difficulties such as global recession, the rise of trade protectionism and a deluge of deglobalization," he said.
So far, the contribution rate of BRICS to world economic growth has exceeded 50 percent. BRICS members have accounted for 23 percent of the world's economic aggregate, a great leap from 12 percent a decade ago. Also, these countries' total trade volume accounted for 11 percent of the world's total a decade ago while the rate has increased to 16 percent.
"Currently, cooperation among BRICS members in trade and the economy has been expanded from traditional commodity trade to some new fields such as e-commerce, investment facilitation and intellectual property, on which trade ministers from the five BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - reached agreement when they met in Shanghai in early August," Gu said.
(China Daily 08/29/2017 page4)
