Brazil expects positive outcomes at BRICS summit

Brazil hopes for most positive outcomes at the upcoming BRICS summit as the five-nation bloc is expected to reach a variety of agreements to promote multilateral cooperation and strategic partnership, a minister said Thursday.Fernando Pimentel, minister of development, industry and foreign trade, said one of the major topics will be the possible establishment of a BRICS development bank and a joint foreign reserve fund.Brazil also hopes to ink a bilateral agreement with China to promote trade in its national currencies, he added.His remarks echoed what Chinese President Xi Jinping said Tuesday during a joint interview by BRICS nations' media outlets that Beijing hopes the summit will "produce positive results" in the establishment of a development bank, a foreign reserve fund, a business council and a think tank.The idea of the development bank, initiated at the 2012 New Delhi summit, is widely seen as a significant move to enhance financial cooperation among BRICS members."The goal of the proposed bank is not meant as a sign of abandonment of any existing global financial institutions, but a response to current economic necessities," Pimentel once noted at the summit.The world's five emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - will hold their fifth summit next week in the South African city of Durban.According to Pimentel, trade volumes between the South American country and other BRICS members almost doubled to 95 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, from 48 billion dollars four years ago.China, as Brazil's top trading partner, accounts for nearly 80 percent of the country's trade flows with BRICS."We have also been working to find mechanisms to facilitate foreign trade with other countries such as Russia, India and African countries," he said, adding that the government would keep on supporting investments in these regions.Pimentel also urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to modernize its governance structure, saying that "developing countries should have a more important role in the organization's governance system."