What is BRICS?

BRICS is a grouping of the world economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa formed on the year 2010 in addition of South Africa to the predecessor BRIC. BRICS, then just BRIC, was officially formed in 2009 and a year later, 2010, South Africa was admitted to bloc turning it into BRICS.

Purpose of BRICS

The BRICS countries support a system of global governance that is more inclusive and egalitarian. It aims to improve global financial institutions and advance a multipolar world order that more accurately represents the objectives and ambitions of developing nations.

New Development Bank

The New Development Bank, which was formally referred to as BRICS Development Bank, is a multilateral development bank that is run by the five BRICS country which is headquartered at Shanghai, China. Its primary lending objective will be for infrastructure projects. And recently, 4 countries were added as new members of BRICS New Development Bank. Those countries are Bangladesh, Egypt, the United Arab Emirate (UAE), and Uruguay.

South Africa will be home to the African Headquarters of the bank named the New Development Bank Africa Regional Centre and it is arranged to have a starting capital of $50 billion after the 5 members each contribute $10 billion and, so far it has 53 projects underway worth around $15 billion. It is planned that the wealth will increase to $100 billion overtime.

BRICS Expansion

At the 15th BRICS Summit, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa announced that six (6) of the emerging countries, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have been invited to join the blog, which will be in effect on the 1st of January 2024.

Road to the expansion summary

Initially, 42 countries officially expressed joining and amongst them only 6 were selected, 14 have formally applied to join, and 19 has expressed interest. Amongst those who applied was Algeria, which is expected to join in the next phase. Two countries in the BRICS bloc, Russia and China, were the ones who were pushing for rapid expansion while India and Brazil seem to be not in favour of the rapid expansion. Nevertheless, the end result were 6 new nations joining BRICS.

Facts after the expansion

As seen on the image above, after the expansion, BRICS plus will hold 46% of the world’s population, have a share of 43% of the worlds oil, and 6 of the top 10 countries in the world that produces oil the most will be in the BRICS bloc.

In depth look at the 6 countries that joined

Egypt and Ethiopia

Both part of the African continent has a great geographic location. Ethiopia is also the fastest growing country in Africa and also headquarters the African Union (AU).

Argentina

Argentina is the largest country in South America and has rich national resources. It is also the biggest producer of lithium in its continent which is a good component of green energy. It also boasts of a good agricultural industry which may boost food security for the bloc through trades.

The country is the second biggest economy in South America and a member of the G20 biggest economy. It is also one of the top developing nations in the world.

UAE, Iran and Saudi Arabia

This three combined is the biggest oil producers in the world, Saudi Arabia being the most producer. Iran has a great location and also has the biggest natural reserves in the world after Russia.