Building a better world

The foundation for the solidarity of the BRICS members is their common aspiration for a more equitable world order

Because the growth of the BRICS members has slowed and they are all facing different development bottlenecks as a result of the external economic environment and volatile capital flows, some Western analysts have concluded that the leverage of BRICS has been overhyped and it should be replaced by CIVETS (Columbia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa) or Next-11 (Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, South Korea, Philippines, Mexico, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Turkey and Vietnam).

However, an unbiased look at BRICS ahead of the fifth BRICS Summit in Durban, South Africa, this month - which will conclude the first round of summits - will show that the significance of BRICS lies not just in the economic cooperation of its members. The grouping has now gone far beyond its original investment concept and evolved into an independent platform for collaboration and coordination among the world's leading emerging economies.