Ghana’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Charles Owiredu, has lauded the just ended BRICS Summit, indicating that the powerful economic group made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is a force to reckon with.
According to him, the countries which makes up BRICS have proven their worth over the years, and their impact has been felt by all. He revealed that the group currently has a combined GDP of 30% of global GDP, further entrenching its relevance.
“It is beyond doubt that BRICS is now a force to reckon with. If you look at the countries, it started with four – Brazil, Russia, India and China, and later they got in South Africa. Now, we’ve been told that they met and have accepted six more – so now, we have Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina, UAE, Iran and Saudi Arabia…”
Charles Owiredu
Highlighting the impact of BRICS, Mr Owiredu stated that the group has indeed been beneficial to the continent. He explained that already, BRICS has a development bank which some countries have started accessing credit.
Additionally, he noted that it’s also helping a lot of countries to develop and open up their economies to create opportunities for themselves.
In light of this, he noted that President Akufo-Addo during the Summit, engaged in discussions on some of the opportunities that exists within BRICS for Ghana.
“So, the President has started looking at it and a decision has not been taken yet… We’ve had some informal discussion, but it’s not concrete yet. So, as and when a formal decision is taken, of course, we’ll all know… Ghana is going to take a decision based on our own needs. We are not going to take a decision because one other country has formally presented a request… We have our own germane issues and trajectory.”
Charles Owiredu
Reforms on United Nation’s Security Council and global financial architecture
Commenting on President Akufo-Addo’s call for a reform of the United Nation’s Security Council and global financial architecture during the BRICS Summit, Mr Owiredu described the petition by the President as commendable. He noted that the current Council has been in existence from the post-1945 world war and indeed ought to be expanded for its own good.
“Currently, the kind of architecture that we have, it’s only five members who are permanent, and who decide for almost everybody. But within the AU, there’s what we call consensus, where the AU leaders themselves sat down and thought that we needed to expand this architecture. So, there’s been that conscious effort to lobby some of these five permanent members to push ahead this expansion.
“If you hear some of these five permanent members speak, I think now there’s that collective goal to expand, but then how do you do it and when do you do it? Because the Chinese have wholeheartedly said that they are ready to allow others to come in – the Russians have said that, even the Americans and the French, but when do we do this?”
Charles Owiredu
Furthermore, Mr Owiredu highlighted that the expansion must be done as quickly as possible. This, he underscored, is because there are emerging global superpowers, and there is the need for the African continent to equally measure up economically.
“So, we need to look at all this and see how especially within the African continent, we can take advantage of this expansion and then push ahead some of the concerns that we have…”
Charles Owiredu
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