Ishr Bic 50 Discussion Threads

[maywillow] 25/10/2024 02:10

BRICS creates new opportunities for Africa
25 October 2024 - 2:56AM
PR Newswire (US)


BEIJING, Oct. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report from chinadaily.com.cn5306;



At the ongoing BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, the leaders of BRICS member states are focusing on strengthening strategic partnerships and enhancing the grouping's role in international affairs.

BRICS has a multi-tiered framework of pragmatic cooperation in fields such as economy and trade, finance, technology, agriculture, culture, education, health, and so on. It has become a constructive force in promoting global economic growth, enhancing global governance, and advancing the democratization of international relations.

The grouping also has to strengthen the roles of its member states in the global monetary and financial system, deepen interbank cooperation, facilitate the transformation of the global settlement system and expand the use of national currencies of BRICS member states to settle payments.

The BRICS summit is becoming increasingly important for the countries of the Global South, because the grouping is no longer just a platform for economic cooperation, but has become an effective and important means for the Global South to build a safer and fairer world.

International organizations and institutions were established after the end of World War II to realize global stability and development for all. The whole world has realized the pressing need to abide by international or humanitarian law, or adhere to the United Nations Charter or UN agencies' rules.

According to the World Bank Group's estimates, Africa's total external debt reached $1.15 trillion in 2023, compared with $1.12 trillion in 2022, with some estimates suggesting the debt could reach $2 trillion by the end of this year.

This means Africa's debt challenge will continue in the near future, especially because global interest rates have reached the highest level in 40 years. Also, African countries have suffered due to declining export revenues since commodity prices began falling in 2015, with the COVID-19 pandemic further worsening the situation.

The fall in commodity prices has reduced the foreign exchange earnings of the Global South countries, which need them to service their loans. Many countries have taken out new loans to pay off old debts, putting them in a debt spiral that prevents them from investing in infrastructure, healthcare systems and education. In fact, the World Bank said last year that 22 countries were at risk of "over-indebtedness". African countries alone will have to pay $163 billion in debt service in 2024, a sharp increase from $61 billion in 2010.

About 80 percent of these debts are to international institutions including the World Bank and the IMF. China, too, has given loans to the African countries to boost their infrastructure development. But China accounts for only about 11 percent of African countries' total loans, which fortunately are all investment projects that promote Africa's economic growth.

As for the five countries that formally participated in BRICS cooperation on Jan 1, they have outstanding financial capability and development potential. For example, the United Arab Emirates has the capability and means to finance and invest in major projects, and Egypt is a large country occupying a strategic location with expertise in the field of agriculture and communications.

BRICS now accounts for 37 percent of global GDP, 46 percent of the world population, about 40 percent of global oil production, and 25 percent of global exports. By becoming BRICS members or partnering BRICS, African countries can create a lot of opportunities for themselves and thus further boost the growth of their economies despite the many challenges.

Cision View original content to download multimedia:

SOURCE chinadaily.com.cn

[maywillow] 24/10/2024 17:46

Can BRICS Deliver on its Promises?

By RFE/RL staff - Oct 24, 2024, 12:00 PM CDT

Putin is using the BRICS summit to project strength and counter Western isolation, while also pushing for initiatives like an alternative payment system and grain exchange.

BRICS members are divided on their approach to the West, with some seeking to reform the current international order and others aiming to dismantle it.

Despite its growing economic influence, BRICS faces internal challenges and a mixed track record in achieving its goals.



As Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts leaders for the 16th annual BRICS summit, he's determined to show the West that he still has important allies by his side after nearly three years of attempts to isolate Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

But while Putin is getting the optics he wants, what kind of an organization is BRICS actually growing into?

Finding Perspective: The summit in Kazan, which began on October 22 and will run until October 24, is the first meeting for the group since Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates joined past members Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

Putin is looking to use BRICS, or BRICS+ as the expanded format is sometimes termed, to signal that Russia has plenty of influential friends, despite its pariah status in the West.

The summit is intended to showcase the group's collective economic might and also entice new countries into a coalition that Moscow and Beijing hope will help form a new world order not dominated by the West.

In Kazan, Putin is expected to push negotiations to build an alternative platform for international payments that would be immune to Western sanctions.

Russia, the world's top wheat exporter, will also propose the creation of a BRICS grain-trading exchange as an alternative to Western markets where international prices for agricultural commodities are set.

But not all BRICS members completely align with the anti-Western stance coming from Beijing and Moscow and this divide could come out in Kazan.

The Balancing Act: While all BRICS members may be united in the "belief that the current structures that govern the international order and the global economy are unfairly weighted toward the Western world," Stewart Patrick, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told me, there is a division between China, Iran, and Russia, which want to unseat the current order, and others who want to reform it.

Many BRICS members, like Brazil and India, still work closely with the United States and other countries in the West, even as they seek to gain more global leverage.

For many of the new members, with the exception of Iran -- and also for many that have applied to join recently -- BRICS holds mostly economic appeal.

Members and would-be members alike are also looking for alternative sources of financing than available from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), and are looking to gain better access to burgeoning markets that could better define the global economy in the coming decades.

Why It Matters: Beyond the financial appeal of the bloc, many countries also view BRICS as a form of geopolitical insurance.

And that hedge is even more relevant given added unpredictability brought to the United States in recent years.

Still, the divisions within BRICS -- and the bloc's so far thin track record in delivering on its initiatives -- could continue to hold it back.

China, Iran, and Russia represent a group within BRICS that are grappling to varying degrees with U.S. sanctions and fighting different types of proxy battles with the United States around the world.

Others, like Egypt, are leading recipients of U.S. military aid or like the United Arab Emirates, host U.S. military bases.

Adding to those difficulties in articulating what a shared vision for the BRICS would look like, China and India have difficult relations, while there is little warmth to be found between Arab states and Iran.

By RFE/RL

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com

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[hedgehog 100] 30/11/2013 21:30

Shaft Sinkers (SHFT) revealed in its IMS a couple of weeks ago that it was moving into China, following its success in India:

14/11/2013 07:00 UKREG Shaft Sinkers Holdings Plc Interim Management Statement

"...Collaboration agreement signed with China Nonferrous Metal Industry's Foreign Engineering and Construction Co., Ltd. ("NFC"), one of the largest Chinese Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management ("EPCM") companies..."

"...The Group also concluded a collaboration agreement with NFC, one of the largest Chinese EPCM companies, to jointly service the shaft sinking market in China. This is a very important territorial shift for Shaft Sinkers into a major new market where a growing number of mines are expected to move to underground mining in the near future...."




It looks to be a very mutually beneficial relationship.
NFC clearly feels the need to calling upon SHFT's services - and it's tribute to SHFT's expertise and reputation that they were chosen - and a joint venture will help to open doors and reduce risk for SHFT in this huge market.


Some info. from NFC's website:

"The PRC is the world's largest consumer and producer of lead and zinc, the Group believes the zinc and lead mining industry will provide potential investment opportunities required by the Group. With a mission to become the leader of the lead and zinc mining company in the PRC, the Group has planned to continue acquiring mining assets in the future to expand the business."




In addition, SHFT is expected to imminently confirm that it has won a $75 million contract in the ex Soviet Union country of Kazakhstan:

29/08/2013 07:01 UKREG Shaft Sinkers Holdings Plc SHFT preferred bidder in Kazchrome JSC tender
"Shaft Sinkers Holdings plc (LSE:SHFT), the international shaft sinking and underground construction group, announces that its subsidiary company, Shaft Sinkers Kazakhstan LLP, has been selected as the preferred bidder in a public tender for Kazchrome JSC. The project award, valued at approximately $75 million is subject to the negotiation and conclusion of a contract scheduled to be completed by the end of September 2013.
The project entails the sinking of the Skipovaya vertical shaft to access a ferrochrome ore-body at the Donskoy ore processing plant in the Aktujbinsk region, Kazakhstan. The scope of work includes the sinking and lining of an 8m diameter skip shaft to a final depth of 1,453 metres.
Kazchrome JSC manufactures, supplies, and exports ferroalloys to steelmakers in the Americas, Europe, and Central and South-East Asia.
Speaking today, Alon Davidov, Chief Executive, said:
"We are very pleased to be selected as the preferred bidder on this project as it is in line with our diversification strategy. This project introduces the Group to a new client and country as well as increasing our commodity basket with ferrochrome." "

[tpaulbeaumont] 20/8/2013 09:32

the race (to the bottom) is heating up

[tpaulbeaumont] 29/7/2013 09:24

however brazil is the weakest of the bunch

[tpaulbeaumont] 29/7/2013 09:03

still weak in shangahi, assuming '08 low eventually fails theres LT demand at 1550, 1400, 1250, 940 and 720

[tpaulbeaumont] 26/7/2013 21:11

Growth is not for granted

Jul 25th 2013, 20:45 by Economist.com

OUR correspondents discuss the deceleration of big emerging economies and whether the growth of the past decade was unique

[tpaulbeaumont] 03/7/2013 09:35

3rd times the charm

[waldron] 26/3/2013 12:07

BRICS to Agree to Further Work on Development Bank -Source
PrintAlert
By Patrick McGroarty
DURBAN, South Africa--BRICS countries will agree to build their own development bank, an official involved in the discussions said Tuesday, though they won't decide where the bank will be based or precisely when it might open.
Finance ministers from Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa meeting here on Tuesday are likely to endorse the "viability and feasibility" of the bank, said the official, who insisted on anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak about negotiations that national leaders must still approve on Wednesday.
The official said that finance ministers would likely recommend a range of funding that each country may initially contribute to the new bank, with an initial ceiling of perhaps $10 billion each.
The recommendations that finance ministers sign off on Tuesday will be taken up by leaders from those countries on Wednesday, when they meet here for their annual summit.
BRICS leaders have said previously that a new development bank would help them finance infrastructure and development projects in emerging markets, where demand is greater than the capacity of existing bodies such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Write to Patrick McGroarty at [e-mail]

[waldron] 16/1/2013 13:37

World Bank Says Currency War Possible
PrintAlert
WASHINGTON--The World Bank's top economist said a global series of tit-for-tat currency devaluations is possible but unlikely this year, despite the organization's forecasts of upward pressure on exchange rates of major commodity exporters.
Kaushik Basu, the World Bank chief economist, said fear of retaliation is likely to prevent a series of competitive devaluations known as a currency war. Expensive yen, Brazilian reais and Australian dollars make those countries' products more expensive in world markets, curbing exports.
"Each country realizes that it is such an interconnected world that a brash move in trying to lower the exchange rate to get a trading advantage means there is going to be a reciprocal action by other countries," Mr. Basu said in an interview. "It is a possibility...but I do not expect that," he said.
Some economists, such as Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, see the potential for a cascade of currency interventions around the globe. For example, Mr. Posen predicts that by fall, Japan, Brazil, Australia or another country will follow Switzerland's move and actively intervene in foreign-exchange markets to push down the value of its currency.
The World Bank, in a report published Tuesday, said it expects continued volatility in developing countries' exchanges rates as their economies are buffeted by global financial markets. A flare-up in Europe's debt crisis and a protracted fight in the U.S. over the budget are the most obvious potential sources of exchange-rate instability.
Commodity prices are likely to remain high as world growth strengthens, putting more pressure on currencies of major commodity exporters such as Brazil and Australia, the bank said. That's especially true for those economies that have developed financial markets able to receive major capital inflows.
Mr. Basu said 2013 could also see emerging markets become a top driver of global growth, giving them a new role in world markets.
"We could, in retrospect five years down the road, look back and say that this was the year that the real driver of global growth moved to emerging economies," he said. "This could be one of those marked years when the changing of the guard occurred."
Industrializing economies such as China, India and Brazil have been growing rapidly, helping them gain economic and political power on the global stage. The U.S. financial crisis and the euro-zone sovereign-debt woes have accelerated a perceived shift in global economic and political power.
China's export-led growth, fueled by low wages and an exchange rate many economists say is undervalued, has come at the expense of other economies, including the U.S. Washington has led efforts to press Beijing for a rebalancing of China's economy, seeking a more market-determined exchange rate, developed financial markets and domestic-driven growth.
Mr. Basu said that weak growth in Europe and the U.S. is forcing the major emerging economies now to rely more on domestic consumption.
"I am hopeful that Chinese and Indian domestic demand will pick up simply because they are being pushed into a corner with demand so slender from industrialized nations," Mr. Basu said.
Write to Ian Talley at [e-mail]
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[tpaulbeaumont] 29/8/2012 08:51

a little dated, but still as relevant and beautifully succinct :)

[tpaulbeaumont] 15/8/2012 08:23

"Exhibit 5 shows real GDP growth and real dividend growth for 16 markets over 100 years to 2000. There is no correlation. In short, even if you are far-sighted enough to look through valuation changes, and swings in profit share of GDP, economic success still doesn't guarantee investment success."