The ninth BRICS Summit to be held in early September in Xiamen, Fujian province will further enhance the partnership among the five countries and usher in a brighter future for the bloc, Lin Songtian, Chinese ambassador to South Africa, wrote in a signed article published in the People’s Daily on Wednesday.

At the forthcoming summit, the leaders of the BRICS members will have in-depth exchange of views on deepening pragmatic cooperation, enhancing global governance, carrying out people-to-people and cultural exchanges and facilitating mechanism construction, the article said.

As a representative of the emerging economies, the BRICS mechanism has grown into an important force to push forward the reform of global governance system after 10 years of development, the article pointed out.

In the past decade, the bloc's share of global GDP has risen from 12 percent to 23 percent, contributing to over 50 percent of the global economic growth, which is more than the total contribution by all developed countries.

The trade and investment volume among the five countries also surged enormously, the article pointed out, illustrating that in the first half of 2017, China's imports from BRICS countries increased 33.6 percent year-on-year, far exceeding the average growth in foreign trade during the same period.

The close cooperation among the BRICS countries on important international platforms such as the UN and the G20 over the past 10 years has also safeguarded the core position of the UN and the authority of the international law in addressing international affairs, as well as protected the common interests of the developing countries.

The bloc also offered political solutions to hotspot issues and contributed its wisdom and scheme to tackling global challenges such as terrorism and climate change, Liu wrote in the article.

In the past 10 years, the cooperative mechanism has formed a new pattern driven by political, economic, people-to-people and cultural exchanges and has yielded a slew of tangible fruits. For instance, the New Development Bank (NDB) initiated by the bloc plans to launch 35 programs and loans with a total value of $ 8 billion in 2018.

At the 2017 Meeting of the BRICS Trade Ministers in Shanghai earlier this month, the BRICS countries signed the Outline for BRICS Investment Facilitation, the first specialized paper to facilitate global investment in the world.

The representativeness and connotation of the BRICS mechanism were further perfected when South Africa joined the bloc in 2010. The participation signified that the BRICS mechanism walked into the African continent where most countries are developing economies, the article said.

To date, South Africa has grown into an important bridge linking the BRICS countries and other African nations and made active contributions to the solidarity, cooperation and construction of the BRICS mechanism.

The BRICS countries also sent a unified voice on African countries’ legitimate appeals to tackle climate change, achieve sustainable development and fight terrorism.

Thanks to the efforts of China and other BRICS members, the G20 Action Plan on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted for the first time during the summit hosted in Hangzhou in 2016. The G20 members also showed “collective support” to industrialization of Africa and least developed countries for the first time.

On August 17 this year, the NDB launched its first Regional Center in Johannesburg. The operation of the center will surely inject new impetus into the development of South Africa and other African countries, said the ambassador.

In addition, the cooperative mechanism will drive the international community to strengthen cooperation with African countries and create more opportunities for the independent and sustainable development of Africa, the article continued.

The BRICS mechanism, with highly complementary cooperation and great potential, serves the common interests of the member countries and their people, Lin emphasized, believing the cooperation among the five countries will become more effective and close in the future as long as they join hands to uphold the BRICS spirit of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation.