Malaysia Joining Brics Will Make Grouping More Inclusive, Representative -- South African Envoy

By Mikhail Raj Abdullah

KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 (Bernama) -- South Africa, like Russia and other key fast-developing countries, is keen for Malaysia to join the BRICS group of emerging economies soon given Kuala Lumpur’s strong and consistent stand in supporting the interests of developing nations on major international matters.

South Africa’s High Commissioner to Malaysia, Dave Malcomson, said that as a proponent of the South-South movement, Malaysia’s role in BRICS would be further enhanced as the upcoming chairman of ASEAN in 2025 and with its prominence in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) as well as Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) countries.

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He said that with South Africa itself holding the presidency of the Group of 20 (G20) countries, both countries could lead other nations in taking a collective stance in areas such as reforming institutions of global governance and propagating the interests of developing countries.

“There’s definitely a lot of work that Malaysia and South Africa can do together which is why the more representative and inclusive BRICS is, the better it is,” he said when asked by Bernama TV host Pasha Rahim on the challenges Malaysia might face in joining BRICS during “The Nation” talk show aired last week.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said yesterday that Malaysia has sent an application to the grouping’s current president, which is Russia, to join BRICS.

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Malcomson said the media has a narrative that some countries might not be too happy with Malaysia joining BRICS.

“I don’t necessarily stand by that myself,” he said.

“BRICS is not against anything (and) we’ve not been set up to counter anything. We are not in the business of making binary choices of either with us or against us. We can be friends with all.

“But as long as we maintain a strong strategic relationship with all our partners, be it the United States or the European Union, we don't foresee an issue."

BRICS IS NOT ABOUT DE-DOLLARISATION

Malaysia must be careful not to buy into such a media hype, which also includes the much-talked about narrative linking BRICS to de-dollarisation, which is not true.

“You won’t find the word ‘de-dollarisation’ in the BRICS document,” he said.

When the BRICS New Development Bank was set up, he said, its first president did a study on loans for infrastructure projects over the long term.

The study revealed that borrowers were paying a major proportion of the costs servicing their (currency) fluctuations relative to the value of the US dollar because the loans were dollar-based.

In other words, they were paying for the appreciation of the dollar versus their own currencies rather than purely paying back the cost of the loan.

The US currency has been appreciating sharply against regional currencies in recent years, no thanks to the Federal Reserve raising interest rates to combat inflation.

This has raised the costs of imports and loans which are transacted or denominated in the greenback.

“So what we’ve tried to do in BRICS, particularly through the New Development Bank, is raise local bonds so that we use our national currencies to service loans as well to pay for trade and investments."

JOINING FORCES TO TACKLE GLOBAL ISSUES

He said it was not really a new idea as the former Soviet Union and India used to trade in their own national currencies.

This was an idea that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim himself had also been alluding to within the ASEAN region.

If Southeast Asian economies were to use their national currencies, it would be to their own advantage as it would lower the risk of currency fluctuations.

They could also join forces in the ongoing debate on climate change, dealing with pandemics and international health crises, and cross-border crime.

These are issues which cannot be dealt with individually but collectively, Malcomson said.

Besides Malaysia’s impending inclusion, another Southeast Asian country Thailand has applied to join BRICS while other ASEAN countries have shown interest in the grouping.

He said BRICS could also help move forward the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), which aims to strengthen regional cooperation and sustainable development within the Indian Ocean region, of which Malaysia is a part.

Anwar has expressed keen interest for Malaysia to join BRICS whose original members included Brazil, Russia, India, and China in 2009 and South Africa in 2010.

The Prime Minister explained Malaysia’s priority in joining up is for reinforcing trade and investment relations and expanding its business linkages globally, a move designed to benefit traders, investors and the business community.

BRICS NOT SHIFTING GLOBAL POWER AWAY FROM WESTERN NATIONS

One of the advantages of BRICS is that countries can make collective decisions on key issues of the day ahead of big meetings such as in the United Nations (UN), Malcomson said.

“So, if it does join BRICS, we can work with Malaysia to develop some common positions in reforming the international financial and political architecture,” he said.

He also said that global institutions like the UN must reflect the shift and change in global power as there are new economic powers and new political powers.

As for traditional western powers, Malcomson questioned why they should be the ones leading global change and setting the rules.

“BRICS has just been an after-reflection of that change (and) I don’t think that it’s necessarily been the driving force of that change (as) that has been happening anyway.

“We don’t see BRICS shifting global power away from western countries,” he said.

Besides Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, BRICs’ other members include Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Anwar had said that cumulatively, the gross domestic product (GDP) of BRICS member countries amounted to US$26.6 trillion (US$1=RM4.64), which is 26.2 per cent of the world's GDP -- almost the same as the economic strength of the Group of Seven (G-7) countries -- and BRICS has 3.54 billion people or 45 per cent of the world’s population, so it makes economic sense for Malaysia to join up.

-- BERNAMA