The fifth BRICS Summit will be held in Durban, South Africa, from March 26-27, at the Durban International Convention Centre. The theme of this summit is ‘BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Development, Integration and Industrialization.’ In attendance will be, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, South African President Jacob Zuma, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Durban summit, the last in the first cycle of summits, will focus primarily on Africa’s infrastructure development, the establishment of a BRICS development bank, a BRICS think-tank, and a BRICS business council.
The BRICS grouping was formed in 2008, and the summits, which began in 2009, are aimed to provide a platform for the member nations to discuss and deliberate on issues of political and entrepreneurial importance. Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs originally coined the acronym BRIC to describe the emerging economic powers; Brazil, Russia, India and China.
It was originally called ‘BRIC,’ until South Africa joined in 2011, at the third summit in China. It has since then been called the ‘BRICS.’
BRICS member nations account for about 43% of the world population and approximately one fifth of the global Gross Domestic Production (GDP). In 2012, the bloc contributed 11% of foreign direct investment of world trade.