On August 23 and on the sidelines of President Xi Jinping’s attendance at the 15th BRICS Summit, the Press Center of the Chinese Delegation invited an official of the People’s Bank of China to brief the media on BRICS financial cooperation.
The official said that in recent years, BRICS countries have continued to promote financial cooperation and yielded positive outcomes.
First, improving the global system on financial security. The BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) is a mechanism established to respond to an economic or financial crisis between the BRICS countries. It is an important effort of emerging economies to address global challenges and build a collective financial safety net. In the past two years, BRICS countries have focused on improving the flexibility of the CRA by improving mechanism arrangements and carrying out regular drills. The goal is to improve financial security, enhance the capability of BRICS countries to jointly handle external economic and financial shocks, and contribute to the financial stability of BRICS countries and that of the global economy.
Second, expanding practical financial cooperation between BRICS countries. In recent years, based on their own conditions, the central banks of the BRICS countries have worked together and shared experience through various means to improve the efficiency of cross-border payments, the progress and practice of central bank digital currencies and the financial support for a steady low-carbon transformation and green development, which are buzzwords in financial sectors these days. With joint efforts, we enable financial services to better serve the real economy and to support sustainable development.
Third, improving global economic and financial governance. As developing countries, BRICS members share similar positions on a series of issues related to major topics such as the reform of the international economic and financial governance, and have shared aspiration for the establishment of a fairer economic and financial governance system. In particular, the BRICS countries have worked actively to promote reforms of International Monetary Fund (IMF) quotas and governance, strengthen coordination on multilateral platforms such as the G20 and the IMF, pursue quotas that reflect the relative weight and role of its members in the global economy and improve the voice and representation of emerging market and developing countries (EMDCs) in the global economic and financial governance system.
The official noted that the central banks of China and South Africa have worked closely in such areas as currency swaps, clearing arrangements, bond markets and foreign exchange markets, making positive contributions to facilitating trade and investment between the two countries and deepening bilateral trade. Going forward, China will continue to work with other BRICS members to continuously consolidate financial cooperation between BRICS countries and inject new impetus to BRICS partnerships.
