World's major emerging powers to meet in China
The world's major emerging powers -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- welcome South Africa into their fold this week at a summit in China that will seek to give developing nations greater global clout.
Leaders of the BRICS nations will tackle a host of issues including the conflict in Libya on Thursday in Sanya on southern Hainan island, though China's exchange rate regime will be off-limits, experts and officials say.
The summit could also offer China an opportunity to position itself as the leader of the world's emerging economies, and as a powerful counterpoint to the West, they add.
Chinese President Hu Jintao will chair the talks with his Brazilian, South African and Russian counterparts Dilma Rousseff, Jacob Zuma and Dmitry Medvedev, and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Goldman Sachs first coined the term BRIC in 2001 to describe the growing influence of the world's four largest emerging economies. China invited South Africa to join the group at the end of last year.
Together, the five countries represent more than 40 percent of the world's population. The International Monetary Fund has said the group will account for 61 percent of global growth in 2014.
"The one thing on which BRICS will be able to work together is to raise the profile and influence of emerging powers," Andrew Kenningham, a London-based economist at Capital Economics, told AFP.
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