BRICS countries
Economic observers and analysts have revealed the significance of Egypt’s joining the “BRICS” bloc as one of the world’s most important economic blocs, seeing it as an opportunity for Cairo to boost its trade exchange rate and joint investment.
Earlier, the Russian ambassador to Cairo, Georgy Borishenko, disclosed the news of Egypt’s application to join the BRICS countries. He told the Russian media: “Egypt has applied to join the BRICS countries because one of the BRICS countries is currently participating. This initiative is transforming trade into currency.” As an alternative, either the state or the creation of a common currency, Egypt is interested in this matter.
In March last year, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi approved the agreement to establish the BRICS New Development Bank and the documents for Egypt’s accession to the bank.
The BRICS countries are awaiting fundamental developments that will be determined by the upcoming summit of the group, which is expected to discuss 19 accession requests, including Egypt.
The foreign ministers of the BRICS countries “Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa” held a meeting in Cape Town in early June, attended by diplomats from 12 countries that intend to join the group, including: Argentina, Egypt, Gabon, Indonesia and Iran .
The Importance of the BRICS Group
“BRICS” is the acronym for the English acronyms of the member countries of the organization, namely: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The BRICS group is one of the most important economic blocs in the world, accounting for about 30% of the global economy, 26% of the world area, 43% of the world’s population, and more than one-third of the world’s grain output.
The BRICS group was founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China, and South Africa joined in 2010.
South Africa, which held the rotating presidency of the BRICS countries in January last year, will host the 15th BRICS leaders’ meeting in August.
For its part, Egypt has been looking forward to joining the BRICS group since 2017, which, according to the National Information Agency, “brings many opportunities and advantages, especially in terms of development, trade and investment.”
In June last year, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi participated in the high-level dialogue on global development at the BRICS summit at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping. BRICS countries.
This is the second time that the Egyptian president has participated in the BRICS leaders’ meeting after attending the BRICS leaders’ meeting at the invitation of the Chinese president in 2017.
What is good about Egypt?
In turn, Egyptian economist Ali Idrisi said in an exclusive statement to the Sky News Arab Economy website that Egypt had been looking forward to joining the BRICS bloc for years because it had previously submitted an informal request and then Only recently, the official clearly pointed out that the importance of this group includes the following points, including:
- Dealing with a group that includes more than 40% of the world’s population, whether from or with countries within that group, produces more than 30% of the world’s goods and services, and contributes to more than 31.5% of the growth rate of the global economy.
- Joining the BRICS provides a great opportunity to increase the trade exchange rate and joint investment between Egypt and member countries, and the importance of joining a bloc that protects the political and economic interests of the Egyptian state and adds more cooperation and experience comminicate.
- Taking advantage of the BRICS trend to trade in local currency or currencies other than the U.S. dollar is part of what Cairo needs for foreign exchange issues, thereby diversifying the basket of foreign currencies.
- Egypt became a member of the BRICS Development Bank, which is a step to confirm Egypt’s determination to join the BRICS countries.
- Accession has strengthened the good political relations linking Egypt with the rest of the bloc, led by Russia, China and India, and its presence in the bloc of countries has certainly facilitated this.
- The BRICS countries also benefit from the presence of Egypt as a member as it acts as a gateway to Africa to enter and channel their goods and services and export to other countries on the continent to benefit from the African market; taking advantage of Egypt’s geography The location and the capabilities it has.
Speaking to Sky News Arab Economy, Rashad Abdo, head of the Forum for Strategic and Economic Studies in Cairo, said the BRICS countries have strong economic power, which gives Egypt a number of economic advantages.
Abdu cited the advantages of creating opportunities to stimulate Egyptian exports, easing foreign exchange pressure on the country, strengthening trade links with countries in the bloc, opening up to joint investment, enabling investment in Egypt, in addition to low obtain products and raw materials at low prices.