BRICS Summit: Emerging Nations Seek Greater Leverage On Global Issues

As leaders of the emerging world powers, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) meet today in New Delhi, the focus is on the bloc's efforts to set up a development bank which will bring together resources required for development, especially in the infrastructure sector.

The proposed bank is expected to better coordinate member nations' development projects and boost intra-BRICS cooperation in trade, commerce and investment.

Trade between the BRICS member nations saw 28 percent growth in 2011. The emerging powers are now pushing for a greater voice in the institutions that govern global economy. They hope the development bank would be an important step in this direction.

We must have our say in confronting the serious economic and financial crisis, which is still worrying because of its impact on the outlook for global growth, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said in a speech on Wednesday at Delhi University.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had said ahead of the summit that the five-nation group should consolidate its efforts on global issues.

BRICS is relatively a young entity. With the inclusion of South Africa, it has now become a global entity. We have large states united (in this group) and we have substantial share of the world's GDP. At international forums, we can consolidate our efforts and coordinate (more), he said at a speech at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University.