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BRICs: And Then There Were Five
December 27, 2010

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DrDez
6:13am Dec 27, 2010

yes I agree - I expect a statement by the president shortly.... unfortunately it will probably be about lasers or maids or hair gel....

Jeanne Hachette
2:17am Dec 27, 2010

Looks like somebody is giving the finger to Indonesia. Too bad , regarding the size of the country and its economy.

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Pretoria. South Africa says it has been formally invited to join the Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) group of key emerging nations, bolstering its image as the economic gateway to Africa.

Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said China, which currently chairs BRIC, invited South Africa to join the group, whose current members will account for 61 percent of global growth in 2014, according to the International Monetary Fund.

“China, in its capacity as rotating chairperson of the BRIC formation, based on agreement reached by the BRIC member states, invites South Africa as a full member into what will in future be called BRICS,” she said.

Chinese “President Hu Jintao also issued a letter of invitation to South African President Jacob Zuma to attend the third BRICS leaders’ summit, to be held in China in the first quarter of 2011,” she added. China’s state news agency Xinhua confirmed the invitation, saying “BRIC has accepted South Africa as a full member of the group”.

BRIC, a term coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill in 2001 to describe the growing influence of large emerging economies, accounted for about half of global economic growth between 2000 and 2008. The BRIC countries are not formally linked but have held summits and taken steps to boost financial cooperation and investment. They held a first summit in Russia last year.

South Africa’s economy is about one-fourth the size of Russia’s, the smallest BRIC, but the country had been lobbying heavily to be admitted to the club. It called the invitation “the best Christmas present ever.” But analysts, including the man who coined the term BRIC, said the country does not have the same economic calibre as the group’s other members.

“In terms of my thesis of economics, it doesn’t make a huge amount of sense,” O’Neill said.

 

Agence France-Presse