What is BRICS?

1.BRICS is made up of China, Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa. The first BRIC Foreign Ministers’ Meeting was held in 2006 among China, Brazil, Russia and India on the margins of the general debate of the 61st session of the United Nations General Assembly, which drew the prelude for BRIC cooperation. In 2009, the first BRIC Summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Since then, the Summit has become an annual event. To date, 8 Summits have been held.

　　In December 2010, China, as the Chair, invited South Africa to join BRIC and attend the Summit in Sanya, China. BRIC officially enlarged to include 5 countries and the acronym changed into BRICS.

　　In the 10 years since its inception, BRICS cooperation has continued to consolidate its foundation and expanded to more areas. It is now a multi-level process led by the Summit, buttressed by meetings of the national Security Advisors Foreign Ministers and other ministerial meetings, and enriched by pragmatic cooperation in dozens of areas such as economy, trade, finance, business, agriculture, education, health, science and technology, culture, think tanks, and friendship cities. Cooperation mechanisms such as the New Development Bank, Contingent Reserve Arrangement, Business Council and Think Tank Council have been established. Pragmatic cooperation has gone to greater depth to yield more fruitful results and exerted important influence globally.

　　2.Thanks to 10 years of development, BRICS has grown into an important platform for cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries. BRICS countries come from Asia, Africa, Europe and America and are all members of the G20. Together, they account for 26.46% of world land area, 42.58% of world population, 13.24% of World Bank voting power and 14.91% of IMF quota shares. According to IMF’s estimates, BRICS countries generated 22.53% of the world GDP in 2015 and has contributed more than 50% of world economic growth during the last 10 years.