00:00Rob Davis is a former South African trade and industry minister.
00:04I think that the declaration which is adopted at the Delhi summit is really setting out a pathway
00:12to a multipolar world order, which it describes with 10 adjectives, a more just, a more equitable,
00:22a more democratic, a more inclusive and so on and so forth world order, which will be multilateral
00:30in character. And it's seeking to do this with a mobilization and a consultation with a group of
00:38countries, which it calls emerging markets and developing countries. The document doesn't say
00:44so, but this group of countries, according to other information, are about 86 percent of the
00:51world's population and have a combined GDP on a purchasing power basis of about 61 percent.
00:59So it's the majority of the world and it's setting out an agenda for its transition to a new
01:04global order with many, many dimensions to that, which are set out in the declaration.
01:12China is proposing this BRICS special economic zone partnership. Can that help countries attract
01:19investment and perhaps build more manufacturing locally?
01:25Well, I understand that the specific proposal was for a special economic zone discussion on trading
01:34services. But I think that the broader issue is important one. And that, of course, is that there is an
01:42ambition of much of the developing world to move into higher value added production. Most of us were under
01:50colonialism relegated to the role of producing raw materials for use in industrial processes elsewhere. And
01:57there's certainly the ambition of the African continent to move towards high levels of manufacturing. And I think that
02:03partnerships which boost the capacity to build special economic zones, which are under construction all over the
02:10countries, the continent could be welcomed. And China, of course, is a world leader in that as BRICS grows larger
02:17and
02:17larger and more diverse. I wonder if it's possible to maintain any sense of consensus while giving all of these
02:25emerging
02:25economies a stronger collective voice.
02:30Well, I think that the declaration reflects the fact that BRICS is growing. So some of the of the built
02:38in work, for
02:40example, the trade without resort to third country currencies, as well as the investment in this
02:46declaration, is defined as working progress. And it's also saying that there's no single part. So I think that there
02:53will be as the group gets bigger. And I think the intention is that the group would become increasingly a
03:01pivotal anchor for the that group of countries that I've already mentioned. But I think that there is a sufficient
03:09consensus around the direction of travel. And although it doesn't say so in the declaration, this is contrasted, I think,
03:17to the rather chaotic, unilateral violations of all the rules that have been set in place by the erstwhile hegemon
03:28and its allies. All of this is the ultimate
03:31alternative part that we've seen. And what the BRICS is trying to do is to lay out, I think, a
03:36broad direction of travel, which would be appealing to most of the countries which are a host of the majority
03:45of the population of the world by far.
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