Main Questions Faced by BRICS Cooperation

The main questions BRICS countries face are from within, not the outside, or that they are not shown on the outside.

First, BRICS countries are still exploring their directions and need to make clear of their cooperation goals and direction, which leads to uncertainty in BRICS cooperation. At present, the trend of global economic recovery is still weak, global trade and investment are down, price of large commodities keeps fluctuating, and the deep level conflicts that triggered international financial crisis are still unresolved. Some countries exercise policies that are more and more inwards bound, protectionism is on the rise, “anti-globalization” thoughts are surging. Geopolitical elements are complicated, traditional and untraditional security risks are mingled, global challenges are more apparent, such as terrorism, infectious diseases, climate change. BRICS countries are faced with complex, harsh outside environment. In this background, how BRICS countries should define themselves in the next decade of cooperation and how should they create an open world is question that needs to be solved at hand.

Second, it's difficult to coordinate the limitation of investment of cooperation resources from the BRICS countries and the complexity of the issues need to be solved at hand. On one hand, some global issues are already laid out in front of the BRICS, such as how to exercise their perspective advantages, strengthen economic cooperation, cultivate global market and complete global value chain? How to sustain a spirit of tolerance, push for tolerance of different social systems, reflections of different cultures and civilizations, mutual benefiting of different development mode? How to keep the spirit of cooperation, take care of each other, seek economic growth for each country and provide motivation for perfecting global governance? How to insist a win-win spirit, to care for the benefit of other countries as pursuing benefits for one's own, to push for a path where countries can cooperate and mutually benefit? These global issues need to be faced and solved by BRICS countries. On the other hand, the economic prowess of the BRICS countries is not enough to face global difficulties. From both financial investment and investment of other cooperation resources, BRICS countries are still a distance from solving these issues.

Third, the spillover effect of BRICS countries is mainly focused in their respective regions, not within the five countries or around the world. Therefore, the influence of BRICS countries and the input are unmatched, which can make BRICS countries unmotivated about pushing for cooperation. It can be seen from Tables 1 and 2 that the concentration index of BRICS trading products and regional dispersion index are more similar to level of developing countries, they need to transition towards developed countries, on one hand they need to diversify their products and lower concentration points, the other hand they need to lower dispersion index and spread its influence to the rest of the world. Only in this way, can they have a significant influence on the world and BRICS countries can have motivation to increase consistency and coherence in dealing with global issues.

Figure 1 Concentration Index and Regional Dispersion Index of Products from Main Regions and Countries around the World in 2015

Source: UNCTAD

Figure 2 Concentration Index and Regional Dispersion Index of Products from Main Regions and Countries around the World in 2015

Source: UNCTAD

Fourth, reach an international governance system that's to the advantage of developing countries in direction and rule. At present, BRICS countries are actively trying to change the existing international system, but what system exactly suits the development needs of BRICS countries? How should BRICS countries adjust the existing international system? In the future development process, how should they jointly increase the representation and say of emerging economies in global governance, push for quotient reform of IMF and design new quotient formula that reflects the proportion of these countries' GDP against the world economy? How to realize the political and economic “two-wheel drive, ” to be the world's economic engine, as well as a shield of international peace? How to learn lessons from history, ditch the Cold War mindset, refuse a zero-sum game and jointly maintain region and world peace and stability? How to enhance south-south cooperation, help other developing countries increase their development abilities and help them ride the BRICS development fast train? Solution of all of these issues is closely related to the positioning of BRICS. As early as July 2014, when president Xi Jinping was attending the 6thBRICS leadership meeting, he pointed out while being interviewed by Latin American press that, “The BRICS cooperation is not about individuals, it's about placing effort on joint development of global countries. As long as BRICS countries increase political mutual trust, concentrate on strategic common ground, make their voices heard and give more proposals, they can contribute more positive energy to pushing world economy grow, improve global economic governance and promote world peace and development.” In an important speech on the 16th, President Xi Jinping made further explanations on this point, saying that BRICS countries should “increase macroeconomic policy coordination, in order to push for wide economic and trade market, vast financial circulation, large connections of basic infrastructure and vast cultural communications, to walk the front lines of international open cooperation, to actively play a leadership role on the global arena.”

Fifth, the strategic trust bottleneck between BRICS countries has not been breached and there's still no essential breakthrough in many fields of cooperation. There's lack of strategic mutual trust between some BRICS countries, which has become the main obstacle in BRICS countries' coordination in exerting influence. Some research shows the BRICS influence in global economy is far less than its economic prowess. Therefore, the construction of BRICS partnership in the future stems not only from their own development need but also the need to jointly voice their concerns. President Xi Jinping pointed out, we need to regard BRICS relationship as “good friends, brothers and partners who treat each other with honesty, ” we should also deepen friendship and cooperation,“to treat the implementation of The BRICs Economic Partnership Strategy as an opportunity to deepen economic cooperation in all regions, promote competition of BRIC countries. We need to construct, maintain and develop the new BRICS development bank and emergency reserve arrangements, to provide powerful insurance for the economic development of developing countries. We need to strengthen cultural and people-to-people exchanges, build a steady public foundation for BRICS cooperation. We need to expand and steady BRICS ‘friend circle, ' keep openness, tolerance, strive for joint development.”