To break free from Western dominance
BRICS economic chiefs chart course
Top economic policy officials from BRICS member states held talks Friday to outline proposals to be reviewed by leaders at a summit later this month as Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov called for the creation of an alternative to the Western-dominated global financial system.
Head of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Mohammad Reza Farzin attended the meeting along with finance ministers from Egypt and the United Arab, while other member states sent more junior officials, according to Reuters.
BRICS, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, and China, has expanded to include South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia.
Russia, heavily sanctioned by the West over its war in Ukraine and cut off from international capital markets, is trying to woo BRICS partners with initiatives such as the creation of the BRICS Bridge international payment system.
“The creation of a cross-border payment initiative is our main task,” Siluanov told the officials. Russia is also pushing for the creation of a BRICS clearing centre, a rating agency, a reinsurance company, and a commodities exchange.
Siluanov has also proposed setting up a joint investment platform based on the group’s New Development Bank. The platform will use a new digital form of transactions, he said, without elaborating.
Siluanov, who hosted the meeting, said the global financial system is controlled by Western countries and that the group, which represents 37% of the global economy, needs to create an alternative.
“The IMF and the World Bank are not performing their roles. They are not working in the interests of BRICS countries,” Siluanov said at an event on the first day of the meeting.
“It is necessary to form new conditions or even new institutions, similar to the Bretton Woods institutions, but within the framework of our community, within the framework of BRICS,” he added.
The summit is scheduled for October 22–24 in Kazan, the capital of Russia’s Tatarstan region.
President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, said nine of the 10 BRICS states would send their leaders, though Saudi Arabia would send its foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. The Saudi delegation was absent from the Friday meeting.
Farzin outlines vision
Mohammad Reza Farzin, the governor general of Iran’s central bank, addressed the Moscow meeting, saying, “The aim should be to set up a settlement platform for cross-border payments based on real-time gross settlement systems (RTGS) and to address the issue of digital currencies of BRICS member central banks (CBDCs).”
According to IRNA, he also touched on the necessity of harnessing artificial intelligence in electronic banking and Iran’s readiness to share its expertise with the BRICS members.
“We believe that by tapping into the political will that exists in the BRICS group and making technical and infrastructural investments, we can move forward with financial communication systems specific to BRICS, facilitate cross-border payments in the group, and ultimately pick up speed, bring down costs, and gain more comprehensive access to an international payment system, thereby creating a more competitive environment.”