🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 Perhaps the most important developments associated with joint actions of the BRICS economies to counter the crisis of the Covid pandemic have been associated with the operations of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB).

In particular, the Bank has extended anti-crisis loans to counter the pandemic to its members and forged ahead with issuance of financial instruments in BRICS national currencies.

But perhaps the most significant stride undertaken by the BRICS in the past several years was the expansion in NDB’s membership this year, which effectively sets off the institutionalization of closer ties between the five BRICS economies and their partners from the developing world.

The near term priorities for the expanded NDB will need to focus on countering the pandemic crisis. This in turn raises the importance of sectors such as healthcare, digital economy development and other projects that are related to the development of human capital. There will also be more scope to deliver a strong contribution to the evolving “green/ESG transformation agenda”, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Yaroslav Lissovolik.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/the-expansion-of-ndb-membership-first-wave-brics/

#Corporations_and_Economy #BRICS

@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club

🌏 Within the economic framework of the Global South the two key drivers of global growth, namely China and India, could deliver significantly stronger growth impulses for the developing world in case they were to espouse closer economic ties.

In some ways the economic cooperation between the two main economic powers of the developing world could be assessed against the backdrop of the trans-Atlantic cooperation between the US and the EU among the advanced economies. This trans-Atlantic partnership has served as the backbone for growth and innovation among the advanced economies in the preceding decades. In this respect, a closer economic partnership between India and China would redound significantly to development areas such as Eurasian connectivity, the growth in the regional partners of the two countries, greater scope for joint innovation projects and the launching of South-South platforms in the financial sector. 

A common platform for economic cooperation across the Global South opens the possibility for the world economy to lower global imbalances via creating a “no core – no periphery” mode of cooperation, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Yaroslav Lissovolik.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/the-growth-engines-of-the-global-south/

#Corporations_and_Economy #worldeconomy #GlobalSouth #China #India

@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club

🏭♻️ The energy transition is likely to have significant geopolitical consequences. It will cause a shift of power away from fossil fuel producers.

Moreover, the new geopolitics of energy will be increasingly determined by issues such as access to green technologies, rare earth materials, power lines and storage capacity. International cooperation, including between the EU and Russia, can lead to mutually advantageous outcomes and help tackle the climate crisis, writes Marco Siddi, Montalcini Assistant Professor, University of Cagliari and Associate Senior Research Fellow, Finnish Institute of International Affairs, participant at the 18th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club.

👉 Session 4 “The Environment: Russia’s Response to a Common Challenge” of Meeting will be dedicated to the principles and guidelines of the Russian climate policy. It will take place on the third day of the Conference and will be held under the Chatham House Rule. An analytical note following the day’s discussions will be available on our website.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/the-geopolitics-of-the-energy-transition/

#VALDAI2021 #Corporations_and_Economy #greeneconomy #climatechange

@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club

📝 After 140 years have passed since the writing of the economic article by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky in “A Writer’s Diary” on the ways Russia was developing. Many of the observations of our great writer remain extremely relevant. 

In this article, Dostoevsky largely anticipates such key topics for the Russian economy as the “turn to the East”, the prioritisation of long-term development guidelines (as an argument in favour of the creation of the Stabilisation Fund in our time), the fight against bureaucracy, the importance of public confidence in the economic policy of the authorities, and much more. Dostoevsky’s economic legacy can serve in our time as a kind of a moral compass for Russian economic policy.

Dostoevsky’s economic legacy can serve in our time as a kind of a moral compass for Russian economic policy, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Yaroslav Lissovolik.

🔗 Dostoevsky’s Economic Cycles

#Corporations_and_Economy #economy #Russia #Dostoevsky200

📷 © Sputnik

@valdai_club

🌏 The current economic framework in Eurasia is fragmented and lacks the digital connectivity that would be predicated on cross-country and cross-regional digital agreements.

This in turn limits the capability of countries to coordinate policies in areas such as trade, migration, digital economy development.

A common platform would address the issue of the “digital gap” across the countries of Eurasia via promoting greater “digital inclusivity”, most notably with respect to the low-income developing economies, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Yaroslav Lissovolik.

🔗 Another Look at the Prospects of a Eurasian Digital Platform

#Corporations_and_Economy #digitalplatforms #regionalism #digitalisation

@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club

💰🌐 Wither сapitalism?

There may have been doubts in the efficiency of the current market system after the 2008 global financial crisis.

The scale of excessive debt on the corporate and sovereign balance-sheets in the developed world, the lack of transparency at the micro-level of companies and the macro-level of countries’ fiscal policies called into question the virtues of the market system. And then came the pandemic and took the scale of doubts to a whole new level.

The world community is aware of the shortcomings of the current system and the debate on its transformation has been underway for years on different sides of the global political spectrum, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Yaroslav Lissovolik.

🔗 Wither Capitalism?

#Corporations_and_Economy #capitalism #pandemic

@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club

🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 What happened in the span of the 5 years between China’s chairmanship in BRICS in 2017 and 2022?

It appears that a lot of the developments in the BRICS universe were associated with the advancement of regional initiatives:

▪️ The launching of the RCEP project led by China and the ASEAN economies

▪️ The launching of the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA)

▪️ BRICS+ summit in South Africa, with invitees being representatives of regional blocs from the Global South

▪️ The signing of a memorandum on understanding between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and MERCOSUR (in 2018) as well as between the EAEU and ASEAN (2018)

▪️ The creation of regional centers of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) in South Africa, Brazil and Russia.

▪️ Approval of the expansion in the membership of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) to include Bangladesh and Uruguay — the regional partners of India and Brazil respectively.

There is also the Covid pandemic that has rendered the global economy more fragmented and regionalized. Another important development of the past several years is the emergence of regional/trans-regional blocs such as the QUAD and AUKUS.

Ultimately, the value of the BRICS+ paradigm is not in extending the BRICS countries’ reach or ambition — it is about a qualitative change in the pattern of economic development in the Global South.

Rather than competing one by one to edge closer to the model of advanced Western economies, the BRICS+ paradigm focusses BRICS countries efforts towards cooperating in building ties with their regional partners and building a common platform for the integration of developing nations into the global economy, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Yaroslav Lissovolik.

#Corporations_and_Economy #BRICS

🔗 BRICS+2.0: Integration Reloaded

@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club

🏗🇪🇺 Nord Stream 2 could provide Europe with cheaper and greener energy. What stands in the way?

In October, the German Federal Network Agency suspended the certification process on the pretext of the recently-completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline not being compatible with the energy legislation in place. Swiss-based Nord Stream 2 AG is planning to open a subsidiary in Germany to comply with the EU and German energy regulations.

While it is too early to speculate whether this move could further stall the start of Nord Stream 2, it has given rise to numerous statements on the project’s (negative) impact on the European gas market and the future of natural gas transit via Ukraine.

The polarisation of public opinion regarding the pipeline’s impact has fundamentally altered purely technical discussions regarding the project. This had led to a misunderstanding of the key commercial reasons for starting the project and the future impact of the pipeline on European consumers. 

The politicisation of energy often prevents decisions from being made based on facts rather than incorrect perceptions, writes Valdai Club expert Danila Bochkarev. 

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/nord-stream-2-could-provide-europe-with-cheaper-gas/

#Corporations_and_Economy #NordStream2 #Europe #energy #gas

valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club

🌍 Africa remains practically the only hotbed of positive demographic dynamics in the world.

With such demographic prospects, the continent's population will practically double over the next three decades - from 1.3 billion now to almost 2.5 billion by 2050 (meanwhile, the population of developed countries will remain virtually the same).

What does it mean for businesses and potential exporters? The fact is that when they go to Africa, they go to expanding markets, which in thirty years will be twice as large as they are now.

The population will be twice as large, and will need more roads, power plants, food, electronics, cars, clothing, etc. Moreover, the middle class in Africa will grow at a much faster rate than the demographic increase would otherwise dictate. By 2050, it will at least triple.

Africa's advantages as a platform for Russian foreign economic expansion are not limited to demographic factors. The developed markets of the OECD countries, especially the European Union, are highly regulated, which creates the highest barriers for exporting companies from Russia. Although tariff barriers are limited by WTO rules, the same European markets have a lot of non-tariff barriers. The regulatory environment in Africa is generally much more favourable, although of course it differs from country to country.

The third advantage of Africa is that the local market is experiencing a shortage of both high-tech companies and companies with a medium level of technology development.

Of course, the African market is not a panacea and one hundred percent recipe for the development of an effective industrial policy of Russia. This is just one of many directions in which the development of foreign economic activity of our country should proceed. However, to neglect its importance would be extremely short-sighted, just as it is short-sighted to neglect the future, writes Valdai Club expert Alexander Zotin.

🔗 Where to Look for an Effective Industrial Policy, and Why Russia Needs Africa

#Corporations_and_Economy #economy #Africa

@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club

💸🌐 The year 2021 will feature in the economic textbooks as one of the most peculiar in terms of the macroeconomic backdrop observed across the world.

The most striking feature was of course record-high inflation in developed economies, with the US and Germany all posting inflation rates of above 5%.

Another fragility that may reverberate across the global economy in the medium-term is the elevated level of fiscal deficits and the increased debt burden.

Overall, while the emphatic recovery in 2021 from the economic decline of the preceding year is welcome, the macroeconomic fragilities remain sizeable and perhaps no less daunting than in the post-2008 financial crisis period.

Given the prominence of base effects in 2021, the longer term question about the growth trajectory of the global economy is whether the crisis period was in fact used as an opportunity to revamp and adapt the economic system to the new realities of the Covid era, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Yaroslav Lissovolik. 

🔗 The Year 2021: A Series of Macro Records

#Corporations_and_Economy #WorldEconomy #inflation

@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club