Discussions On The Top Developing Economic And Political Power Of BRICS

Discuss about the Top Developing Economic And Political Power Of BRICS.

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) are top developing economies and political powers both at the regional and international levels. The acronym BRICS was initially begat in 2001 to underscore the significance of 4 developing economies and at the time included only Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). It was held then that the high growth rate of their economies, economic strength and demographics (massive population) would put BRIC in a position of advantage and it was contended that their expanded significance ought to likewise be reflected in their joining to the G7 (De Almeida 2011). The four nations themselves started holding engagements in 2006. In 2010, South Africa by invitation from the other 4 countries joined what would then become BRICS after several years of lobbying. Due to the geographical sizes of the 5 countries, massive populations and large economies, the BRICS states have had a significant impact on global development, particularly in Low Income Countries (LIC).

LICs account for nearly 1.4 billion of the world’s population of people who live on less than 1 US dollar a day. The economies of the LICs are very prone to external shocks and are characterized by volatility of commodity prices and fluctuating food prices (IMF 2011). BRICS are upsetting the current structure of international development and trade arrangements. This is owed to their financial flow as well as their emergence as donor countries. BRICS is seeking to break away from the established donor patterns. As at 2010, emerging donors had raised more than 90.6 million US dollars to support the World Food Program and another 87.1 million US dollars in support of the UN Emergency Relief Fund (ERF). The subject of investigation in this paper will be the effect of the BRICS on the economies of the LICs and how their economies are interdependent as well as the approaches of BRICS in pursuing development policies.

BRICS have a different form of partnership with developing countries where technical assistance is preferred over financial assistance. To a great extent the three approaches in international cooperation employed by BRICS has contributed to significant economic development in countries where they have been utilized well. Notwithstanding these efforts, a majority of the developing countries are still heavily dependent on imported primary products and their economies are in dire need of diversification.  There are a number of similarities in the assistance given by BRICS although their foreign aid institutional structures are markedly different. The bulk of the assistance given by the BRICS goes to countries neighboring them. Their main goal of cooperation is regional integration. They all perceive trade and investments as the means to achieving economic development. Their guiding principle is that of non-interference; as such, their focus is not trained on human right and governance issues. BRICS are proponents of technical assistance rather than financial assistance. Brazil, India, China and South Africa were in attendance during the round table talks held in Paris and Accra in two capacities; both as donor countries and as donor recipients.

Impact of BRICS on the Economies of LIC

BRICS was invited for the European Consensus on Development and the Agenda for Change although they were not recognized as donor countries in the summit. BRICS as emerging donors are not keen to join the Donor Assisting Countries (DAC) which is made up of the traditional donor countries. Rather, they have chosen to pursue their course via multilateral relationships as well as other international fora such as the G20. Markedly their approach to aid is also distinct from that of traditional donors; while the latter invest heavily in financial assistance; BRICS is keen on technical assistance as the driver for economic development. Experts opine that BRICS are gaining traction and influence in the design of international development cooperation and need to be recognized as emerging donor countries. As such they should be engaged in a structured way in the global trade talks going forward.

The country’s institution in charge of international cooperation is the Agência Brasileira de Cooperação” (ABC). The bulk of Brazil’s foreign aid is channeled to its neighboring countries such as Bolivia, Paraguay and the Andean region. Foreign aid from Brazil is majorly invested in the social sector, education and health and poverty eradication. Brazil is also a major contributor of emergency aid being one of the world’s leading exporters of agricultural products (De Almeida 2011). Brazil spends between 342 million US dollars to 1 billion US dollars per year on foreign aid (accurate figures on the same are scarce). It also spends an estimated 248 million US dollars on multilateral aid about half of which goes to the Mercosur and the Inter-American Development Bank. Brazil has continued to increase its aid budget yearly despite glaring economic disparities which have occasioned political tensions and underdevelopment in the country.

Russia is listed as a transitional country although it does not belong to the category of development nations. Its 20^th Century history still influences the way Russia thinks of itself. Even to date, it continues to make huge budgetary allocations on its military despite the social tensions within the federation and challenges arising from the dispute prone Caucasus region. Its most abundant export commodities include energy, minerals and materials for use in low level processing. Russia’s economy is not diversified. It has a struggling service sector and majority of its population is ageing. Nevertheless, Russia’s economy is re-emerging thanks to its efforts in development (Keukeleire et al., 2011). As at 2010, its contribution to the Official Development Assistance (ODA) had risen to 472 million US dollars up from 100 million US dollars in 2004. Russia extends most of its aid funding to its neighboring Eurasian countries. She has also given 260 million US dollars towards the fight against HIV/AIDS malaria and Tuberculosis in the last ten years preceding 2012.

Approach of BRICS in Pursuing Development Policies

As at 2005, 4 out of 10 Indians were living on less than a dollar in a day. Of all BRICS states, India receives the highest allocations of ODA. In 2009, this stood at 2.5 billion US dollars. India has extended aid assistance to its neighboring countries including Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. In Africa it has had close bilateral relationships with Mauritius. India as at 2012 had given up to 200 million US dollars to NEPAD initiative (Walz et al., 2011). India is also engaged in technical assistance in Africa through TEAM-9 Initiative (Techno-Economic Approach for Africa-India Movement) and Pan-African E-Network Project and the. Between 2009 and 2010, India Foreign Development Budget stood at 700 million US dollars every year.

Chinas economy is the second largest in the world (measured by GDP). For 11 consecutive years China’s economy has had a steady economic growth rate of between 8-11% making it one of the fastest growing economies in the world. China is looking to direct 46% of its foreign aid to Africa and 33% to Asia. Often, China finances infrastructural projects in the developing countries which are most of the time paid back in mineral or oil supplies e.g. in Angola and DRC. China will advance 13% of its development aid to Latin America. The White Paper on Chinas foreign aid reports that as at 2009, 161 countries and another 30 international aid agencies had received significant foreign aid funding from China (Dyer et al., 2011). Chinas’ spending on foreign aid stood at 1.9 billion US dollars in 2009 up from 0.5 billion US dollars in 1999. The government of the People’s Republic of China prefers cooperation in the South-South Cooperation model usually accompanied by ceremonial symbols. China is also committing significant resources especially in Africa in the form of 20 year concession loans, interest free loans and debt relief. It has signed debt relief contrast with over 50 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia amounting to 4 billion USD. China also has a prominent stake in foreign direct investment in Africa.

South Africa’s focus of international cooperation is regional security and peace. The country’s foreign policy objectives pinpoint Africa as the center of its main focus. In 2008 South Africa spent over half of its aid funding on defense and security interventions in the continent. In the White Paper in 2011, South Africa has set out to be a leader in the African Union in the areas of pace keeping, peace building and prevention of conflict as well as post-conflict reconstruction. In 2011, South Africa committed to make significant aid contributions to DR Congo, Sudan and the Comoros to fund peace building and reintegration efforts after armed conflict (Ramachandran et al., 2011) It has also committed to engage with regional institutions such as South African Development Cooperation (SADC) to contribute to the attainment of peace in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa. It is difficult to find any conclusive data on South Africa’s foreign aid spending but it could be anywhere from 100 million US dollars to 450 million US dollars in recent years.

Profile of BRICS Member States

In the last decade, BRIC have continued to rise in rankings in the world economy. Today, the five countries contribute a significant share of the global economy. The five countries have had an impressive progress as measured by the Purchasing Power Parity and their participation in the Gross National Income (GNI). Of the 5 countries, there are indications that China and India will continue to expand their share of the global economy (IMF 2011). Brazil’s economy is also projected to remain stable while that of Russia is foreseen to experience a decline. As BRIC countries rise in terms of their economies they have also been keen to establish deeper ties with other development countries.  Among the world’s emerging economies, BRICS are major players in the global economy.

The 5 development protagonist owe this success to 3 main factors; the massive sizes of their economies, impressive economic growth rates that are sustained and the pursuit of increased recognition in the structure of global cooperation and trade that is commensurate to their economic standing. South Africa stands in a unique position among the BRICS. Although a member country, it does not satisfy much of the criteria that are identifiable in the other 4 BRICS countries. Its economy is almost insignificant compared to the other 4 countries. Its GDP is even much smaller. However, South Africa is the Africa’s leading economy and is the only country in the continent that is listed as belonging to the upper middle income states. Moreover it is the only country in Africa that has membership in the G 20.

The most prominent feature of the BRICS is the pursuit of a more balanced representation at global decision making processes with regards to international development politics. In the first meeting of BRICS heads of state, they called on the international community to institute a more democratic world order that takes into account all sates in decision making organs (De Sousa, Sarah-Lea 2010)  The political stance that has been adopted by BRICS has prompted analysts to speculate that they are seeking to upset the European Union and provide countering philosophy to that of the US and western donors but more fundamentally BRICS are champions of the globalization process and are seeking to influence in multilateral economic and political institutions rather than opposing them.

Although BRICS may not belong to the league of the most successful economies in the world going by per capita income, thanks to the dynamics of their economies, sheer geographical sizes and populations, they are impacting heavily on the global governance structure and international cooperation (World Bank 2011). They are making a case for their relevance by initiating meetings with institutions of global governance both at the presidential and ministerial level. Their strategy to achieving this is through the use of multilateral coalitions and South-South Cooperation. This played out in 2006 during the WTO (World Trade Organization) round table talks on agricultural subsidies and import taxes held in Geneva. In the failed negotiations, BRICS took a position favorable of the South-South Cooperation. BRICS have adopted SSC friendly stances on many issues touching developing countries in a bid to win their support and hence influence in international development politics.

As discusses above, the formation of BRICS was to bring the common power of the members countries together so as to make a competitive advantage against the West countries. Russia was eyeing to increase the trade across Africa and South America as Brazil and South Africa needed security and regional development. The following are among the accomplishments of the BRICs.

Trade among the nations has been the backbone of the tremendous growth observed in those nations. The brick group has shown remarkable improvement on the foreign trade relationship with constant growth rate (Mujica et al., 2014). In the mid-1990s the export growth rate was about 13.3% and improved to 49.8% in the last ten years,  similar, the import rate among the countries have improved from  13.2% to 47.7% in the respective time frame. The improved trade among these nations impacted growth of GDP, hence increasing from 9.2% in the 1980s to 26.6% in 2009.

The import and export steady growth rate has been improving in the past decades have increased due to the high demand for resources, especially during the Indian and Chinese growth manufacturing industries. The demand of the raw materials has caused the rise of the prices of the raw material, oil, higher import fee that benefited countries such as Brazil and Russia as the past prices of the raw material were used to invest higher processing industries (Wilson, 2015). Both countries used their expertise to help LICs to escape from the commodity trap to avoid the Dutch Disease Effects. The transfer of knowledge and technology from one country to another has helped LLCs countries to establish diversified economies.

During the last decade, the FDI flow among the BRICS have improved from $ 10 billion in 2002 to $ 146 billion in 2008 and only declined in 2009 due to the financial crisis that exposed Brazil into recession stage(Anik & Tikhonova, 2016). Brazil and India account for about 10% each while Russia and China own above 75% of the total BRICS. Russia overall flow adds up to $265 billion during the past ten years; China came second with $ 251.

All the BRICS nations do not have a common strategic approach on FDI. Brazil and South Africa tend to focus on the neighboring countries and are both active in SSA. Indian is more focused on Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and Mauritius while Brazil focuses on the Angola, Liberia, and Bolivia. On the other hand, the Chinese FDI is diversified in both regionally and sectorial(Lo, 2016). The Chinese FDI is still more concentered in countries such as Zambia, South Africa, and Nigeria, with many parts going into the private sectors. The Chinese FDI to SSA totaled into about $ 1.3 billion in the year 2007, that was much less by 5 % of the global FDI to SSA(Kaddar, Milstien & Schmitt, 2014). Contrary to China, Russia acquires her FDI from both the developed and developed countries such as the America and Angola . from the SSA Russia receives a lot of natural resources for the industrial process.

The continuous interaction of the BRICs with the developing countries aides in improving the FDI of the respective countries and have resulted in positive impacts such as energy supply and infrastructure. It must be guaranteed, that opening of natural assets, development tasks, and neighborhood rivalry are to the advantage of the individuals in the particular nations (Ghai,2015). Similarly, as some other home nation of FDI, BRICS need to amplify their possess financial and political interests; they are not following up on sheer charitable convictions. Be that as it may, from a BRICS' point of view, advancement of monetary key angles like an exchange, transport, assembling and administration ventures is seen to be critical for a general change of creating nations.

The impact of the increased relations tends to differ among the heterogeneous groups of third world countries. To a great extent, BRICS have improved the financial growth and sustainable development the greatest impact can be distinguished as a result of trade relations for example about  60 % of BRIC tend to influence the trades on LICs(Lagutina, 2017). Because of solid exchange binds of BRIC to the Middle East, North Africa what's more, Central Asia, different growth effects are articulated to trade relations.  Countries that export oil tends to face the adverse effect of the trade in these regions, for example, indirect spillovers to LICs results into the high process, high demand and decrease in the global interest rates, therefore, the influence of BRICs in these regions cannot be taken for granted. Basically, regarding demand and productivity, a 1% increase in BRIC is trailed by a 0.7 % increment in LICs yield more than three years.

Additionally, the effect of BRICS to LIC is very significant in countries that have a high level of GDP inflows. China tends to move from low-labored countries to high labored countries that can create creation to higher quality products, in this way leaving spaces and open doors for LIC-economies to make occupations in these divisions (Vasilyeva ,2017). The impacts of BRIC to LICs can be exceptionally strong in countries with high inflows in the level of GDP: therefore, these BRIC nations are perceived as funds providers to the developing countries.

World banks have listed the BRIC among the statistical databank as the developing debtor countries since the members are found among the TOP 5 borrowers. The BRICs members accounted for about 40% of the external debt owned by developing counter by 2010(Katanda ,Roberts & Armijo, 2017). However, countries like China tend to have an enormous amount of the global reserves for the past ten years. As much as the BRICS try to influence the financial development money, the amount is generally much lower than that’s supplied by the OECD countries. However, the amount provided by OECD tends to be less confessional. Positive overflows incorporate higher profitability, higher export rates, enhancement of ventures, and increasing of territorial exchange linkages. The IMF too recognizes BRIC help being corresponding to customary improvement help 

The BRIC impact on LICs development has essentially expanded amid the money related emergency. BRIC was influenced not as much as western nations, which have additionally prompted an expanded offer altogether LICs trade. BRIC economies are not completely interwoven with western structures, accordingly giving certain self-governance and decreasing development instability in LICs. Counterfactual examination appears, that if BRIC development had declined to a same degree from industrialized nations amid the emergency, LICs' development would have been 0.3 – 1.1 % lower. There are astounding overflows and positive effects through BRICS' commitment, particularly in regards to exchange. Exchange, FDI, and improvement financing have not just added to LICs' monetary advancement yet, also, decreasing the impacts of the current money related emergency on LICs. Be that as it may, various LICs still depend excessively on fares of essential wares and need enhancement and enhanced advances for their businesses.

The group's major reason was forming a financial advantage over others groups, however, this has not been achieved due to failure to form a common policy and political actions, a major reason why the BRICs banks have never been constituted(Onis & Kutlay, 2013). Political policies have experienced in these countries with each having different per capita income, foreign investment among others, an effect seen as the failure of the counties in forming a common voice as a group. The countries have always been active only in the economic meetings contributing so much but have never been active in the political arena of the countries.

BRICS is a union of countries, and this means that all the operations should be uniform. However, the objective has never been achieved since the group has not succeeded in bringing an end to the ongoing struggles between China and India. The two countries that are the major contributors of the group fight over the demarcation of the borders leading to the probability of the group collapsing. There have been growing mistrust between China and India due to the latter providing asylum to the Dalai Lama, a sign of threat to the sovereignty of China. It is also observable that the BRICS group tend to participate in the two rival alliance in the world when it comes to the influence of Eurasia (Sakwa ,2016).

Russian and China together with iron and Pakistan are seemed to be aligned on one side while India and US and Japan on the other (Onis & Yilmaz, 2016). It is also observable that the lead countries are more aligned to the United States than they are aligned to the BRICS groups, hence showing lack of loyalty among the members. For example Russia attracts most of the FDI from the West unlike the BRICs members such as china and india that gain their FDI from the developing countries.

The BRICS groups have registered different rates of growth rates among the countries, for example, South Africa, Russia, and Brazil tend to struggle economically whereas China is enjoying tremendous growth rate for the past three years in a row.

With the failure to accomplish some of the objectives, the great steps that have been made through the interaction between the two countries have created a positive result; many developing nations such as Angola depend on the trade actions between them and the BRICS nations. Therefore, the group is still on the cause no matter the internal and international groupings. China is growing at alarming rate, and very soon like in the 22nd century, it might surpass the United States as the string the economic power.

When people talk about the position in today’s world, it is also important to look at the history of how the UN was formed in 1942. The pioneers who were the Soviet Union, the United States, and Britain had a similar stand or position except for the Soviet Union that had a complete point of view of looking at the world (Nadkarni & Noonan, 2013). The world was polarized in two main frontages, but the UN moved fine.

In the current world state of affairs, China is not as diehard communist as USSR was at the time of formation of UN. China’s current capitalistic strategy has created a serious effect on the global powers offering their political and cost-effective prospective. Looking at the Indian’s position in the world, it has been capitalistic from early 1990’s. The familial strategy of governance and is the prevalent democracy in the world makes India stand out among many nations globally. It is regarded as a young country which has prospective to be a source of power or inspiration of the world.

Therefore, when organizations such as BRICS are discussed, it is essential to have diverse opinions of the world so that solution to each problem can be though by various means. From its initiation, it is clear that the founding members had different viewpoints. It also has one of the largest Communist countries as its members give an ideological edge. This is an indication that there are several pressing challenges within the organization itself and they must overcome them to remain relevant (Ferreira-Pereira & Vieira, 2016).

As mentioned earlier, BRICS partnership has always focused on co-operation on Global stability, prosperity and security as well as different economic and development matters such as health, food security, technology and innovation, science, energy and sustainable development. Again, the emphasis is also on the economical administration and global financial agenda. Having all these good plans and agendas, BRICS still faces numerous challenges. Even though the connections between the members can be balancing, the BRICS nations compete against one another on the global markets. In the World Trade Organization, most of the complaints have been made against Chinese products, and this has frequently been done by Brazil, where India is also emerging to be a real threat to the Brazilian steel and software industries (Arunachalam, 2012). In this case, it, therefore, means that attaining the preferred commitment of increased and integrated trading relations among the BRICS will be accomplished through a procedure of confrontation, co-operation, and concession. However, there appears to be a development in the position of facilitating trade between the BRICS nations. In this case, to be relevant, the organization signed two agreements at the 2012 BRICS summit; The Master Agreement on Extending Credit Facility in Local Currency and  Multilateral Letter of Credit Confirmation Facility Agreements (Rewizorski, 2015).

The export-import banks of the BRICS member states signed the two agreements to enable trade among its members to be done in domestic currencies volatility, as well as improving the globalization of BRICS currencies. The organization is challenged by the actual battle with trade and investment in the member states’ commerce ground lies in the capability to resolve two-pronged trade pressures. Success in realizing this will assist in strengthening the organization's position in the global economic negotiations.

Infrastructure deficiency is a challenge that the BRICS share in their respective countries and locations. Infrastructure is one of the things that are used to determine the economic growth of any country. Therefore, for emerging economies not only for the BRICS but also other countries, infrastructure becomes vital for the BRICS to have a role or responsibility in the international economy and take part in the international value chains. The primary sectors of infrastructure growth required in the BRICS nations are transport (rail and road), energy, and accessibility to clean water and hygiene as well as telecommunication. A few of the BRICS members have executed or are in the process of executing determined infrastructure plans. For instance, China has been making important steps in its infrastructure growth and the past 20 years, managed to construct nearly 40, 000 miles of express tracks, which are the most wide-ranging high-speed rail network, ultramodern airport terminals, broad subways networks and substantial hydroelectric dams. Despite all these, China still experiences challenges, for instance, the July 2011 bullet train collision and lack of water in major cities. These situations may appear to affect only an individual member state; however, the impact is also felt on the organization itself.

On the other hand, India as a member is also on the move of implementing development agendas such as constructing new airports and ports, power-generation and tolled highways, freights and subways, and has dedicated 8% of its GDP to road and rail network projects. The bourgeoning population is one of the challenges that India as a BRICS member goes through and puts pressure on infrastructure as well as attracting other investments but most importantly, infrastructure. Similarly, poor regulatory systems and bureaucratic red tape have made things difficult for investments to be carried out.

With the challenges witnessed days before Brazil hosted 2014 World Cup and later 2016 Summer Olympics, the county struggled to meet the needed infrastructure development projects. The projects such as bus speedy transport routes, port upgrades, subway extension, new highways, and expansion of airports were not fit enough to hold high profile events. Challenges were experienced in selecting contractors for to carry out work on the high-speed rail network that connects main cities was experienced. In this case, it is seen that some of the BRICS members lack that financial muscle to compete with other global organizations such as European Union among others.

Russia is also not left behind; the country suffers severe underdevelopment in the infrastructure division. Most of the country’s infrastructures were inherited from the former Soviet Union, inconsiderate environmental conditions, insufficient investment from both the government and the private sector in the infrastructure division, and corruption have left Russia’s infrastructure in a disorder condition (Das, 2017). As a result, Russia lags behind other developed countries regarding infrastructure growth. For this situation, the nation’s government has put in place a development program up to 2030 that covers the only infrastructure as well as making important investments into the infrastructure division. Similarly, the cost of putting up proper infrastructure has gone up due to serial corruptions being experienced at the procurement level and other stages.

South Africa being the last member to be invited to the group also faces major serious challenges in infrastructure and some other sectors as well. However, the country has also put its emphasis on the infrastructure development and other areas such as electricity, water, roads, rail, roads, and telecommunication. Several people have always seen BRICS as the upcoming or emerging economies with an outstanding development, ready to be in the front of the global economy.  However, the challenges that they go through as individual nations speak volume. For example, Brazil which is considered the largest economy in Latin America has gone through its worst recession. The country has seen the price of important items such as sugar go up, oil, and even coffee. The inflation rate has also gone up with higher percentage thus plummeting consumers’ confidence. On the other hand, the unemployment rate is the rise making condition in the country unbearable with issues such as corruption and the previous outbreak of Zika virus (Ribeiro, 2015).

As mentioned earlier, Russia’s export mainly depends on oil and gas which account for nearly 60%. The world oil price is not always and most of the time makes a sharp decline thus creating harm to Russia’s economy. Besides, based on several international issues, Russian ruble has much depreciated due to price decline and Western economic sanctions. However, with all these challenges, the BRICS nations are expected to offer a solution to the troubling international issues such as terrorism as well as climate change through the closer organization. Therefore, BRICS countries ought to try as much as possible to work on the internal challenges before extending that support to the outside world. Having signed an agreement as donor countries, BRICS are likely to fail in some of their missions and visions due to lack of the financial muscle to push and maintain their objectives (Verma & Rani, 2015). In that case, for them to remain relevant, the bloc has to come up with several appropriate means that generate extra revenue that will stabilize their economy and make the group reach the outside world to accomplish their mission, the reason for formation.

Conclusion

BRICS is a bloc that seems to represent the interests of the developing world and do not represent an identical alliance. The members came together to seek equal voice and recognition at the international level. It is part of the leading group of upcoming economies that are going to or already transforming the set of conventional development assistance. Based on the impacts given, it is clear that BRICS is influencing the development dynamics through the demand for raw materials and industrialized exports. On the other hand, the group’s contribution to the international development has also increased, a clear proof that it is making some progress despite numerous challenges being faced by a section of its members (Rewizorski, 2015). Besides, its financing has not often created debt sustainability issues in the earlier period. Still, it is crucial to monitor social and economic income and probable debt sustainability issues in order to remain relevant and match the standards of other organizations such as EU.

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