The first meeting of BRIC leaders, slated for June 16 in Yekaterinburg, Russia, will cover a wide range of issues, especially the global financial and economic crisis, within its five-hour timetable, Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said on June 9.

The term, coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill in 2003,refers to the four emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China. The four countries account for 42 percent of the world's population, 14.6 percent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 12.8 percent of the global trade volume in 2008.

China's economy has been growing at a pace of well above 9 percent over the past30 years. Russian and Indian economies has increased by some 6 percent while Brazilian economy has grown by 3 percent to 4.9 percent in recent years, all higher than that of the western countries or the world average.

"We expect the BRIC summit will expand strategic consensus, consolidate mutual trust, coordinate to cope with the global financial and economic crisis and lay out the blueprint for its future development," He said.

At the summit, China expects all parties to agree to reform the global financial system, He said.

"The global financial crisis exposed the disadvantages of the present system. The system, as well as the governance structure of the financial organizations, could not follow the changing situation, and thus needs reform," he said.

The BRIC countries have held the same stance on financial system reform, agreeing to enhance financial supervision, reform global financial organizations, and to increase the representation and voting rights of the emerging economies and developing states in these organizations.

"We expects the summit would push the reform of the financial organizations according to the road map and timetable set up during the G20 summit in London in April," He said.

China advocated a fair, just, inclusive, and well-managed world financial order should be established in the comprehensive, balanced, gradual and effective manners.

On reforming international monetary system, He said, the basic point was to ensure security of all nations' foreign reserves and make a stable system to promote economic development.

China advocated to improve the international monetary system, improve the regulatory mechanism of the issuance of reserve currencies, maintain the relative stability of the exchange rates of major reserve currencies and develop a more diverse and rational international monetary system, He noted.

On the issue of the Chinese currency the renminbi, and its internationalization, He said China had signed the currency swap deals with some countries, worth about 650 billion yuan so far.

"This was a contribution to cope with the financial crisis, but it didn't mean the RMB had become the international reserve currency," He said.

By People's Daily Online