BRICS sailing with the tides

“We should not ignore problems arising from economic globalization or just complain about them,” said China’s President Xi Jinping at the 9^th BRICS Summit held in Xiamen, China earlier this week. “Rather, we should make joint efforts to find solutions. To this end, we should promote the building of an open global economy, advance trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, jointly build new global value chains, and rebalance economic globalization.”

Xi warned that due to sluggish global growth in recent years, uneven development, inadequate governance protectionism, and inward-looking mentality were on the rise. His full speech can be found here.

Following his speech in Davos at the World Economic Forum last January, Xi Jinping again stressed the importance of open global trade and the role of emerging and developing markets which have been the primary engine of global trade. The annual summit was attended by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazil’s Michel Temer, South African President Jacob Zuma and Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was the first time Xi met Modi since the border standoff.

The changes in the global trade architecture will be discussed at Asia House’s first signature conference Asia Trade in the New Global Order in Hong Kong, 27 November.