How much do you know about BRICS?

BRICS is a group of the world's five major emerging national economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

It

stems from the term BRIC coined by Jim O’ Neill in 2001, who identified

the first four countries in the current group as at a similar stage of

newly-advanced economic development.

In 2010, South Africa began efforts to join the group and the name BRICS was born.

The countries represent about 43 percent of the world's population and 30 percent of its GDP.

Over

the past ten years, the BRICS nations have contributed more than half

of the world's economic growth and have achieved pragmatic cooperation

in areas such as trade, finance, agriculture and technology.

The BRICS summit has been held annually since 2009 and this year takes place in the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen.

(China's eastern coastal city Xiamen /VCG Photo)

(China's eastern coastal city Xiamen /VCG Photo)

Representatives

from the BRICS countries also signed an action plan on cultural

cooperation on July 6 at a ministerial meeting in Tianjin, aiming to

seek common ground in cultural values and respect diversity.

(Representatives

from the BRICS countries at a ministerial meeting in the northern

Chinese city of Tianjin on July 6, 2017. /VCG Photo)