The recently proposed BRICS investment platform utilizing digital assets is poised to significantly alter the global financial landscape as it has the potential to challenge the dominance of Western financial systems, according to Professor Victoria Panova, an international relations expert at HSE University in Russia.
"When we are talking about this new investment platform with the use of digital assets, we could be maximizing the existing potential of the emerging economies, of the emerging markets, in order to advance this new global wave of economic growth, not allow it to cut with their global imbalances, with the ongoing geopolitical problems, with the strive of Western powers to keep their domination," Prof. Panova told Sputnik Africa.
The professor stressed the platform’s goal of empowering nations to make sovereign decisions regarding investment, leveraging new technologies to direct resources where they're most needed. She cited the substantial growth in intra-BRICS foreign direct investment (FDI), increasing from $1.1 trillion in 2011 to $3.7 trillion in 2021, as evidence of this potential.
Panova also highlighted the difficulties faced by countries like Egypt and Ethiopia due to restrictive conditions imposed by the IMF, arguing that the BRICS investment platform, with its access to potentially $100 billion, can offer alternative financing free from political interference and better tailored to the needs of recipient nations.
"We know that the African continent is the most dynamically growing one," he argued, criticizing existing Western aid and investment models, citing research showing that donors often benefit more than recipients. "When we do have investment platform finalized and launched, it will give even bigger opportunities because it will allow for African countries to have their choice and to maximize their benefits."
Prof. Panova emphasized that the BRICS investment platform serves as a crucial safeguard against the "restrictive, punitive, unilateral, and illegal" financial measures employed by Western nations.
She proposed several avenues for African nations to cooperate with BRICS to further reduce their dependence on Western financial systems. This includes collaborative development of cross-border payment systems, the establishment of networks of corresponding banks and exchanges utilizing national currencies, and the exploration of a joint BRICS-Africa clearing and settlement system.
"BRICS are reaching for their civilizational intercultural ties. We're strong because we're united in our diversity. And it's a healthy diversity," the academician concluded.