BRICS summit: African Union, economic blocs to attend

High level representatives of the African Union and African regional economic blocs have been invited to attend the the fifth Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) summit that will take place from 25 to 27 March in Durban, South Africa.

The BRICS members are all developing or newly industrialized countries, with large, fast-growing economies and significant influence on regional and global affairs and offer the emerging economies in Africa alternative trading partners to the traditional western nations.

The decision to invite the African Union and the economic blocs including the East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Central Africa (COMESA) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) is due to the fact that all the three regional groupings are working towards a free trade area covering eastern, central and southern Africa – an equivalent of 60 percent of the African economy and have a combined gross domestic product (GDP ) of US$1 trillion.

Presently, financial officials from the BRICS bloc are in the process of conducting feasibility studies for the development of a BRICS development bank that could go a long way in mobilizing resources for infrastructural development projects in developing nations.

The launch of the BRICS development bank would provide Africa, the Caribbean and other emerging countries an alternative to the Western dominated Bretton Woods institutions notably – the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.