Yacoob Abba Omar

When you are outside of government, it is very tempting make jokes about the various acronyms that fly around and the institutions they supposedly represent. Okay, we all know what the UN or the G20 is, but we scratch our heads at P5 or G3. Then we get more exotic ones, like the IOR-ARC or Ibsa.

Into this alphabet soup, the name Brics has been dropped. And this is one acronym we all better learn a lot more about, because it is potentially the greatest game in the global political economy.

South Africans will have this learning opportunity when the fifth Brics summit is held in Durban on March 26 and 27.

From my 10 years as a diplomat, I can safely say that many of these bodies do add value to our lives as human beings on this planet, though there are quite a few I wish would die a quiet death.

But because some international diplomats' livelihoods depend on these

bodies, it is impossible to get rid of them.

The acronym Bric was originally coined by Jim O'Neill of Goldman Sachs, who was describing the new economic powers that were set to dominate the global stage; Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa successfully lobbied to be admitted into this august group in 2010 and it has since come to be called Brics.

This was not without controversy. Some felt that South Africa was neither as big an economy, nor had a large enough population, as one journalist put it to me, citing O'Neill as a source and towards the end of a well-lubricated dinner.

I told him that O'Neill should stop behaving like a child who brought his football to the field and then decided where the goalposts and what the rules should be.

South Africa's access to sub-Saharan Africa, the fastest-growing region in the world, is reason enough to be part of the Brics.

Also, if the Bric countries had felt there was no value in South Africa becoming a member, they could have turned us down very easily, as they do to other aspirant countries.

I am glad the journalist did not quote my flowery language – it would have been most undiplomatic.

Critics have asked what the difference is between Brics and Ibsa, which stands for India, Brazil, South Africa.

At its core, Brics is an association to counterbalance Western political and economic dominance and to increase the political and economic space of these countries and their developing-world allies.

Ibsa revolves more around normative and developmental issues. Hence it is strong on issues of UN Security Council reform and South-South cooperation.

The Sanya summit of Brics, held in April 2011, is probably the most important since the summits began in 2009.

It consolidated many of the strategic perspectives that had been percolating among the member states. Some of the highlights of this summit:

• It recognised the Brics Forum as the locomotive of global economic development.

• The Development Bank of Southern Africa was admitted to the club of the Bric development banks.

• Mechanisms were set in place for business-to-business cooperation.

• Government-to-government liaison was to be improved through ministerial meetings on security issues, international relations, international financial governance, agriculture, statistics, and business competition.

The most recent summit, held in Delhi, India, was organised under the theme of Brics Partnership for Global Stability, Security and Prosperity.

One of the most important outcomes was the decision to set up a Brics development bank, described as a "Brics-led South-South development bank."

The finance ministers of the member states were directed to conduct feasibility studies on the initiative and to submit their reports at the Durban 2013 summit.

The Durban summit is organised under the theme Brics and Africa: Partnership for Development, Integration and Industrialisation.

Among the issues delegates would be focusing on in the summit's 10 days will be the establishment of a network of think-tanks among Brics countries, closer ties between the business communities, as well as between our judiciaries. Steps toward the creation of the development bank will be closely watched.

You have every right to ask; apart from all the fancy dinners, flying around and staying in five-star hotels, is Brics going to get me or my cousin in Chatsworth a job?

An Arab diplomat once confided in me that he wished his country had been more proactive in linking up with the Chinas and Brazils of the world, as South Africa had done.

There is no doubt that the centre of gravity of the global economy is shifting to the east. And as South Africans, we are benefitting from that shift because of the alliance we struck a few years ago.

In 2011, bilateral trade between South Africa and China grew by 32%, with India by 25% and with Brazil by 20%.

Among Brics members, South African exports to China grew the most, at 46%, while exports to India grew by 20%, to Brazil by 14% and by 7% to Russia.

As long as we accept that this is an exclusive economic club with many others wanting to join – and don't disturb it by raising uncomfortable moral issues – we will be fine. And it will actually maintain some level of GDP growth in our country while the euro zone recovers from its crises.

Yacoob Abba Omar is director operations at Mapungubwe Institute of Strategic Reflection (Mistra) and can be contacted at abbao@mistra.org.za