news photo
BRICS leaders issue Sanya Declaration

Leaders of the five fast-growing emerging economies vowed to support the reform and improvement in international monetary system for the establishment of a stable, reliable and broad-based international reserve currency system. [Full coverage: BRICS summit]

"The international financial crisis has exposed the inadequacies and deficiencies of the existing international monetary and financial system," says a declaration issued Thursday after a summit of BRICS nations.

The summit was chaired by Chinese President Hu Jintao and attended by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South African President Jacob Zuma.

The management structure of the international financial institutions should reflect changes in the world economy and increase the voice and representation of emerging economies as well as developing nations, reads the Sanya Declaration.

"We welcome the current discussion about the role of the SDR (special drawing rights) in the existing international monetary system including the composition of SDR's basket of currencies," it says.

The five countries urged efforts to intensify international financial supervision and reform while enhancing policy coordination as well as financial regulation and supervision cooperation to promote the sound development of global financial markets and banking systems.

Meanwhile, the countries called for more attention to the risks of massive cross-border capital flows faced by the emerging economies.

They noted that current global economic recovery was still haunted by many uncertainties and major economies should coordinate their macroeconomic policies in order to push for a robust, sustainable and balanced growth in the world economy.

Commodity Price Fluctuation

The leaders also highlighted the volatility in global commodity prices, particularly that of grain and energy, which they considered as a new challenge for world economic recovery.

To tackle the issue, "we support the international community in strengthening cooperation to ensure stability and strong development of physical market by reducing distortion and further regulate financial market," the declaration says.

Concerted efforts should be made to expand production capacity and enhance dialogue between producers and consumers to balance supply and demand while increasing support to developing nations in terms of funding and technologies, it says.

Regional Turbulence

On the situation in the Middle East and north and west Africa, the declaration says that force should be avoided in resolving regional turbulence.

"We are deeply concerned with the turbulence in the Middle East, the North African and West African regions and sincerely wish that the countries affected achieve peace, stability, prosperity and progress and enjoy their due standing and dignity in the world according to legitimate aspirations of their peoples," reads the Sanya Declaration.

"We share the principle that the use of force should be avoided," says the declaration.

The five countries vowed continuous cooperation in the UN Security Council on the issue of Libya and urged parties concerned to resolve their differences through peaceful means and dialogue, according to the document.

They expressed their support for the African Union High-Level Panel Initiative on Libya, saying the UN and regional organizations should play their role appropriately.

The countries also reaffirmed the need for a comprehensive reform of the UN, including its Security Council, to make it "more effective, efficient and representative" in order to better deal with current global challenges, the declaration says.

Hongkong Tel : +852-2537 7886 Add : 5/F Manulife Place, 348 Kwun Tong Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR