The just-concluded BRICS summit in Xiamen, China, highlights the rising Asian power's concerted efforts for boosting global economic growth, said a leading U.S. expert.
The ninth summit of the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, or BRICS, closed on Tuesday with a blueprint mapped out to chart the course of the emerging market group to achieve common development and play a bigger role in international affairs while opposing protectionism.
The summit shows the group, the combined economic share of which has almost doubled to 23 percent over the past decade, is committed to boosting global economic growth by strengthening cooperation among them as well as with other developing countries, said Stephen A. Orlins, president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (NCUSR).
China's proposals such as "BRICS Plus" and the Belt and Road Initiative -- a global infrastructure project spanning dozens of countries -- are creating new impetus for an open economy, multilateral trade that benefit BRICS and other developing countries and the world as a whole, Orlins told Xinhua at a seminar in downtown New York City on Wednesday.
China has put forward the "BRICS Plus" approach by inviting leaders of Egypt, Mexico, Thailand, Tajikistan and Guinea for a dialogue on the sidelines of the Xiamen summit held on Sept. 3-5.
"I think all the initiatives I just talked about, are exactly what (former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State) Robert Zoellick meant (in 2005).That is China being a 'responsible stakeholder' in the world," Orlins noted.
"It is not overthrowing the global institutions, as some Americans said. It's building global institutions that complement them (existing ones)," he said. "So AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) does not overthrow the World Bank, or the Asian Development Bank. It increases what these institutions can do, and in some ways, because we've learned from those institutions, they may be even better institutions."
"From a U.S. perspective, all of these things are good for two major reasons," Orlins said.
"One, as people's per capita income increases, it's actually good for America's economy because our ability to sell goods and services increase. So I think that benefits the United States," he said.
"Second, it benefits the United States in terms of increasing economic growth in places that may become fertile ground for recruiting terrorists. When there is economic growth, when people have opportunities to improve their lives, they generally don't become terrorists."
"If you look at the Belt and Road Initiative, you look at the economic development initiatives (proposed by China) at APEC, BRICS and others. It's positive in that regard, so I think America should welcome this," Orlins commented.
However, the coverage of the BRICS and the Belt and Road Initiative have remained very limited in the U.S. media, he added.
"Even though the term (of BRICS) was invented by an American (former Goldman Sachs economist Jim O' Neill in 2001), it's by and large not known (to Americans). I think if it were known, it will be portrayed positive," he said.
