The 2023 BRICS Seminar on Governance & Cultural Exchange Forum was held in Yangzhou, East China’s Jiangsu Province on March 30, 2023. Photo: Du Qiongfang/GT

BRICS countries vowed to form a closer cooperative partnership at a seminar that shares experiences in governance and strengthens cooperation to create a global development pattern that is inclusive, balanced, and coordinated with mutual benefits aiming for common prosperity.

Speaking on this year’s themes “A New Blueprint for BRICS Cooperation, A New Dynamic for Global Development” and “Closer Cultural Ties for Stronger BRICS Partnerships,” more than 200 representatives gathered at the 2023 BRICS Seminar on Governance & Cultural Exchange Forum held in Yangzhou, East China’s Jiangsu Province, and online on Thursday and Friday to brainstorm ideas related to governance and to reach a broad consensus on building high-quality partnerships and deepening and strengthening cooperation among BRICS countries. 

Sun Yeli, deputy director of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and minister of the State Council Information Office, delivered a keynote speech via video link at the opening ceremony of the seminar, saying that Chinese modernization is a major achievement of the long-term exploration and practice by the Chinese people under the leadership of the CPC. It has been proved to be a path benefiting both China and the world, which has expanded the options for developing countries to pursue modernization and created a new form of human civilization. 

Facing a global economy that is struggling to recover from imbalanced development, global development and governance are at an important stage of transformation, BRICS countries have reached consensus that they should adhere to independence on pursuing modernization and make choices that suit their own development needs based on their own national conditions and culture, to create diversified paths for mankind to realize modernization, said Du Zhanyuan, president of the China International Communications Group, who addressed the seminar at the opening ceremony. 

Two new reports on global development and governance – the BRICS in Global Governance: New Role and New Model, and Global Survey: BRICS Cooperation in the New Era of Global Development 2022 – were released by the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies at the seminar on Thursday. 

According to the reports, the BRICS cooperation mechanism has made remarkable achievements in the fields of global political security, economy, trade and finance, sustainable development, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges. 

The reports also show that people in 25 major countries across five continents agreed that BRICS countries enjoy good governance capacity, at an average acknowledgement at 81.9 percent. They think that orderly and stable governance across BRICS countries lays a sound foundation for promoting global development. 

In order to propel the BRICS mechanism to a higher level of closer partnership and broader scope, more economic cooperation, governmental supports and people-to-people exchanges are expected, Yu Yunquan, president of the Academy of Contemporary China, told the Global Times. 

As two major countries in the BRICS, the cooperation between China and India will make an important contribution to the success of BRICS mechanism, Mohammed Saqib, secretary general of India China Economic and Cultural Council, told the Global Times, noting that the two countries with a lot of resources have huge influence on the new blueprint for BRICS cooperation as well as on the world. 

At the parallel sessions of the seminar on Friday, experts from the BRICS countries conducted pragmatic and productive exchanges on seven topics: seeking global development consensus for win-win solutions; strengthening the foundation of global development for an open world economy; building momentum for global development through technological innovation and transformation; sharing global development opportunities for quality partnerships; promoting mutual learning and safeguarding common values; strengthening media cooperation to spread the voice of BRICS; and gathering the power of youth to create a better future. 

The opening ceremony on Thursday also released the second series of Co-Produced and Co-Broadcast BRICS Documentary Films and a theme song for BRICS cooperation, “Together We Are”, which showcase the cooperative results of people-to-people and cultural exchanges among BRICS countries.