BRIC to make formal debut
Published: 16 June, 2009, 07:53
Edited: 09 May, 2010, 08:41
TAGS: G8, Asia, Russia, South America, Politics, Economy
The world's key emerging economies are meeting in Russia for their first ever summit. The BRIC nations, made up of Brazil, Russia, India and China, hope the bloc can act to stabilize the global economy.
The BRIC states haven’t come out of the global credit crunch unscathed, but the crisis has been a great time for its members to go shopping abroad.
Last month, Russia bought a slice of Opel, the flagging German car-maker and part of U.S. auto giant General Motors. For many of the 55,000 workers across Europe, the move was seen as a lifeline.
German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier welcomed the purchase.
“I think we have found a responsible solution with private investors and interim funding from the state. It is a solution which preserves (Opel's) locations in Germany and also preserves the highest possible numbers of jobs,” Steinmeier said.
Until the crisis struck, Russia was on course to overtake Germany as Europe’s biggest car market. Now it hopes to use Opel’s know-how to boost its car industry.
It’s an idea that's also occurred to others.
The Hummer is an off-road legend, and it is loved like nothing else by Russia’s thrill seekers who also happen to be very rich. But now a bankrupt GM is set to say good-bye to Hummer. And it’s the Chinese who are eyeing it up.
A little-known Chinese heavy-machinery maker emerged as the surprise buyer of the cult brand. But we may be a long way from seeing any Made in China Hummers…
But while some Western business giants are sinking, the rising economies are keen to snap up potential bargains.
“Before the crisis Russia and China accumulated big financial reserves. And now there are opportunities to buy great assets at half-price or less. The West has always viewed investments from BRIC countries with caution. But the crisis has forced them to be more flexible,” analyst Aleksander Razuvaev says.
Developed economies need money – the world’s fastest developing economies have it. Russia and Brazil have mentioned offering $10 billion each to the International Monetary Fund. China could invest $50 billion and India may announce similar funding.
“Who could have imagined some 15 years ago that the world financial system would need a helping hand from the countries that used to be seen as under casts?” Tatyana Shaumyan of the Russian Academy of Sciences said.
The four nations have so far been seen as little more than a common interests club. But the time may be right for BRIC to become one of the building blocks of the global economy as it emerges from the downturn.
15.06.2009, 17:50
3 comments
Ukraine’s new take on Holodomor: Moscow’s not to blameThe head of Ukraine’s security service has said that Holodomor, the mass famine of the early 1930s, was done by Ukrainian authorities of the time and has nothing to do with today’s Russia. |
16.06.2009, 10:45
3 comments
Russia sends the UN mission packing from Georgia-AbkhaziaThe UN's observer mission on the Georgia-Abkhazia border zone will wrap up its work on the ground. It comes after Russia vetoed a Security Council draft on prolonging the UN Caucasus mandate. |
Excellent, and this is the way to go, BRIC needs to take a lead as an economic body, there is no following to be done, it is time to focus the world on a multipolar road ahead, for the benefit of all the world's people. The Obama circus is fine, they can just keep juggling and fire-eating, it is good entertainment, whilst BRIC and the rest of the world, move on and build a sound diplomatic and economic trading structure to refocus the world away from a western dictat. The US, in the end will also benefit from it, as it will be a return to core original American peoples values, rather than institutional USA. It will also create new markets, for the US to openly and fairly compete in, rather than to control through military blackmail and threats. So like all good teams, just keep playing the way we are, be aware of what others are doing, but don't just watch and follow, play your own game. This is what BRIC,SCO and others need to do. Not in an aggressive polical way, but going back to sound economic and normal friendly diplomatic basis. It is time to create world organs, that are not inspired by the empire of US self interest, that currently dominate all western created institutions. Common interests need to become the order of the day, with muticultural diversity, competition and tolerence being the guiding principles. Central control never works, be it by the US or anyone else, this is a time proven fact.
Well said, Count Cash! - But paying money into the IMF may prove ill-advised in the long term, although diplomatically necessary at present. The world is poised between plunder and cooperation. The dominant American-European powers continue plundering in their long-established tradition of merciless imperialism. Arms production is basic to this sordid process and continual war essential to stimulate and grow their economies. The hope is that BRIC, with other countries which may wish to join, offers new forms of cooperation. China's activities in some African countries, by tying trade to cooperative efforts to build a regional or national economy, may offer some examples of a New Way, enhancing life - not threatening and destroying it. As Count Cash says: "Multicultural diversity, competition and tolerance being the guiding principles", cooperation should replace threat, war and and murderous plunder.