BRICS 'set to be global force' (2)

In addition, a new consensus was reached in the founding of a common development bank, which aims to provide credit support for infrastructure projects, though details on funding and location of the proposed bank have not been disclosed.

"We have decided to enter formal negotiations to establish a BRICS new development bank based on our own considerable infrastructure needs, which amounts to around $4.5 trillion over the next 5 years, but also to cooperate with our emerging market in developing countries in the future," said South African President Jacob Zuma.

The five countries also announced that they are mulling over a $100 billion Contingent Reserve Arrangement among BRICS countries, asking their finance ministers and central bank governors to continue working towards the establishment.

The arrangement will have a positive precautionary effect, guard the BRICS short-term liquidity pressures, and enhance financial stability, complement existing international arrangements as an additional line of defense, said the Durban Declaration announced at the summit.

Nicola Casarini, a research fellow at the EU Institute for Security Studies, said China increasingly views the BRICS as a forum to discuss global economic and political issues and as an alternative to those forums usually dominated by the Western powers.

"But the sound development of the BRICS forum still depends on benign interplay with other mechanisms such as G20, and should serve as a supplement instead of a replacement," said Yu Jianhua, a scholar on International relations at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

Cao Heping, a professor of economics with Peking University, said the group has the potential to reach even bigger agreements. "Economic cooperation among BRICS countries shouldn't stop at establishing a common development bank, but should push on for a Free Trade Agreement," Cao said.

Such an agreement could start with the coordination foreign exchange mechanisms, followed by common tariffs and eventually trade settlement in a single currency.

In addition, Cao suggested, the future cooperation mechanism shouldn't necessarily be constrained by the concept invented by Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O'Neill in 2001, but should look at introducing more countries.

"The level of inter-regional investment remains low," said Feng Shaolei, an expert on Russian studies at East China Normal University.

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