BRICS Comes to Agreement Over Global Economic Crisis

By Jamie Beboso

XIAMEN (UN Press Corps) - Last January 2019, the delegates from the BRICS Development Bank collaborated together in order to solve one of the main issues impacting international affairs: the Global Economic Recession. From 1999 to 2010, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, the BRICS nations, have experienced strong economic growth that has enabled them to rise as five of the largest economies in the world. In 2010, however, the global economic recession caused their respective economies to dip drastically enough for the results to be felt by countries around the world. The delegates from the BRICS Development Bank have come together in order to solve the issue through collaboration.

Throughout the court sessions, the delegates have given their opinions, suggestions, and positions, and in the words of Anton Siluanov, Minister of Finance of Russia: “We are basically working on the same goal and we're just saying the same things in different ways so right now we’re just working on economical regression and we’re trying to figure out how to make our economies better.”

By the beginning of the second court session, the nations of Brazil, Russia, India, and China have agreed to merge their suggestions and positions, leaving South Africa as the only country who will submit a paper separate from the other four countries. This startling action from the African nation caused turmoil within the committee, and the delegates from the other four countries urged South Africa’s delegates to join them and unify all of their positions. Doing so would quicken the voting process as well as the implementation of their plans.

“The voting procedure obviously procures longer when you can just include him [South Africa] in a clause…” said Eduardo Guardia, Chair of Finance for Brazil. In a moderated caucus, Russia also expressed a wish for South Africa to unify with them and compromise.

In spite of these speeches, South Africa remained stubborn in its decision to submit a separate proposal to the court. In its defense, Lesetja Kganyago, Governor of the South African Reserve Bank said: “I feel that merging it might cause possible clauses to have [problems]. I don’t think there is reason to merge now… and there are some ideals that overlap [between blocs].”

In the South African contract, Lesetja Kganyago explains that some of the nation’s most pressing issues are the exploitation of raw materials and the threat of terrorism within the country. He, along with his signatories, recommended treaties between BRICS nations to “create limited tariffs on emerging industries in order to protect them in developing nations” and “encouraged the development of non-resource sectors, through investment from the New Development Bank,” as stated in their working paper.

Integration of these plans would be initiated by promoting new sources of energy, like solar and hydroelectric energy, as well as building infrastructure, transportation and telecommunication .

The contract of Brazil, Russia, India, and China primarily addresses foreign direct investment, corruption, and crime. One of its main clauses sets forth the P-U-C method, meaning Produce, to encourage global production within countries, Use, to improve the microeconomics within countries, and Commerce, to sell production amends or the resulting products of the first two methods. Another clause is the building of the new Silk Road economic belt, which is a man-made route created to strengthen the trade industries of Russia, China, and other countries. There are also plans to prioritize the energy sources of Brazil, create agricultural agreements, and fight corruption and crime.

Soon after the presentation of papers, the court voted unanimously to approve both contracts. The world can expect these measures to take form in the years to come.