BRICS of gold glitters amid grudges

GOA, India - Pessimists may hardly cease grumbling that the bloc of BRICS has been losing steam, while the group of five emerging economies is nonetheless moving forward to keep its shine.

Leaders from the five BRICS member countries are scheduled to meet for a summit here on Saturday.

Skeptics say the five nations are all facing challenges including economic slowdown, stronger competition from traditional trade powerhouses and worsening international security situation.

Their gloomy assertion that "BRICS of gold is seeing a fading shine" will certainly be shrugged off by leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Giving a confidence boost, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) upgraded its growth prediction for the emerging economies earlier this month with IMF chief Christine Lagarde saying China and India will maintain the fast growth rate.

The IMF expected the emerging economies to contribute 75 percent of world growth in 2016 and 2017, still as the most important engine for the global economy.

It is plausible to say the outlook for the BRICS economies has been not so rosy recently, as the World Bank forecast that the Russian and Brazilian economies may shrink by 1.2 percent and 4 percent respectively this year.

The once galloping development has been affected by protracted sluggish world economic recovery and plummeting commodity prices in recent years.

Lingering slowdown and even depression started to haunt some of the BRICS economies.

While in China, besides the slower growth rate, economic activities are hampered by overcapacity in heavy industries, decelerating export growth and regulatory tightening of lending.

However, it is surely not fair to claim that the bloc has been losing its luster and dragging down the world economy.

The five economies have been contributing immensely to the global recovery since the 2008 financial crisis and have provided more than half of the world's economic growth over the past decade.

The skeptics cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that, the bloc, with its huge economic volume, remains the driver of the world growth.

Financial institutions including the World Bank still expects a stable growth rate of China's economy.

Although the situations in Russia, Brazil and South Africa, which depend heavily on resources, are not as good as in China and India, there is no need to make a fuss over the slowdown as it only mirrors a gloomy global landscape.

Further more, critics should by no means neglect that the five BRICS countries have spare no efforts in structural reforms to make their growth more sustainable.

In China, authorities and enterprises have been striving to tap the potential of domestic demand and switch focus on high-quality and innovation-driven industries.

In the meantime, economic ties within the BRICS framework have been deepened since the bloc's debut summit was held in 2009.

Statistics show that China is currently the largest trading partner of Brazil, Russia and South Africa, and the second largest of India.

Besides trade, relations have been developing among the BRICS nations in the sectors of academics and culture.

Schemes including the New Development Bank (NDB), which was initiated in 2014, display coordinated endeavors and efforts of the five nations to reform the global economic governance.

The five BRICS nations have been on the right path to overcome economic headwinds and the Goa summit will chart a new course for their development.

They, in history, have not been scared of the crucible from a lackluster world economy, but demonstrated what they could achieve by pooling their capabilities.

The five nations, with over 40 percent of the world's population and nearly one-third of the world's land area, have a combined GDP of about one-fifth of the world's total.

The BRICS members also boast abundant natural and human resources, massive markets, huge growth potential and bright prospects from policy coordination.

Srikanth Kondapalli, chairman and professor in the Chinese Studies Centre for East Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, told Xinhua, "The BRICS is still relevant and it is able to drive a message in the international community."

Some old powerhouses' jealousy and nostalgia are thus understandable when seeing the success of the emerging economies.

In fact, those who voice in an ironic tone see clearly the fact that despite the challenges, the BRICS economies still have huge potential and the mechanism is still of vitality.

The BRICS nations will surely display their integration, shrug off scathing remarks of skeptics and pessimists, and keep focused on cementing the influential platform for emerging economies.

As Chinese President Xi Jinping said in September at the G20 Summit in Hangzhou that BRICS nations, as leading forces of emerging-market economies and developing countries, should reinforce coordination to make emerging-market economies and developing countries play a bigger role in international affairs.

As an old Chinese saying reads "pure gold does not fear furnace," the BRICS of gold will still glitter despite the grudges.