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1. BRICS – The Acronym
The acronym was coined by Jim O’Neill a Goldman Sachs employee in a 2001 paper entitled
“Building Better Global Economic BRICs”. The acronym has come into widespread use as a
symbol of the shift in global economic power away from the developed G7 economies to the
developing nations.
Political dialogue between the BRIC countries began in New York in September 2006, with a
meeting of the BRIC foreign ministers. Four high-level meetings followed, including a full-scale
meeting in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on May 16, 2008.
The BRIC countries met for their first official summit on 16 June 2009, in Yekaterinburg,
Russia, with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dmitry Medvedev, Manmohan Singh, and Hu Jintao, the
respective leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China, all attending. The core focus of the summit
was related to improving the current global economic situation and discussing how the four
countries can better work together in the future, as well as a more general push to reform
financial institutions. There was also discussion surrounding how emerging markets, such as
those members of BRIC, could be better involved in global affairs in the future.
In the aftermath of the summit the BRIC nations suggested that there was a need for a new global
reserve currency that is ‘diversified, stable and predictable’. The statement that was released
stopped short of making a direct attack on the perceived ‘dominance’ of the US dollar,
something which the Russians have been critical of; however, it still led to a fall in the value of
the dollar against other major currencies.
South Africa sought membership during 2010 and the process for formal admission began as
early as August 2010. South Africa was admitted as a member nation on December 24, 2010
after being formally invited by China and the other BRIC countries to join the group. The group
was renamed BRICS to reflect the now-five-nation membership, with an “S” for South Africa
appended to the acronym. President Jacob Zuma attended the 2011 BRICS summit in Sanya,
Hainan province, China in April 2011 as a full member.
Objective of BRICSnations.1-Toachieve regional development2-Toremove trade barriers.3-Economic
development.4-Optimumuse of resources.5-Builidingrelationship.
As of 2014, the five BRICScountriesrepresentalmost 3billionpeople,orapproximately40% of the
worldpopulation;asall five membersare inthe top25 of the worldby population,andfourare inthe
top 10. The five nationshave acombinednominal GDP of US$16.039 trillion,equivalentto
approximately20%of the grossworldproduct,and an estimatedUS$4 trillionincombinedforeign
reserves.The BRICShave receivedbothpraise andcriticismfromnumerouscommentators. Since 2010,
the BRICS nationshave metannuallyatformal summits.Russiacurrentlyholdsthe chairof the BRICS
group,and will hostthe group'sseventhsummit inJuly2015

2. The group signed the long-anticipated document to create the $100 bn BRICS Development
Bank and a reserve currency pool worth over another $100 bn. Both will counter the influence of
Western-based lending institutions and the dollar.
The new bank will provide money for infrastructure and development projects in BRICS
countries, and unlike the IMF or World Bank, each nation has equal say, regardless of GDP size.
Each BRICS member is expected to put an equal share into establishing the startup capital of $50
billion with a goal to reach $100 billion. The BRICS bank will be headquartered in Shanghai,
India will preside as president the first year, and Russia will be the chairman of the
representatives.