"BRICS countries are the economic bellwether of the world," Huang Kunming, Executive Vice Minister of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, said in his key -note speech at the BRICS Seminar on Governance, which opened in Quanzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, on August 17.

The seminar, under the theme of "Openness, Inclusiveness, Mutual Benefit and Win-Win: Working Together to Build a Community of Shared Future for Mankind," provides a chance for over 100 experts from government agencies, business circles and the academic community in BRICS countries and the rest of the world to share their views on global issues. These topics include poverty alleviation, equality, cultural communication and environmental protection.

Books on display at the BRICS Seminar on Governance (LI JIA) 

"In a successful BRICS… scenario, developing countries can identify with the objectives of this seminar of building a shared future for mankind, with transparency, openness and inclusiveness in our cooperation, with mutual benefit and a win-win for all," Mizengo Peter Pinda, former Prime Minister of Tanzania, noted.

Wang Gangyi, Vice President of the China International Publishing Group (CIPG), one of the organizers of the seminar, told Beijing Review in an interview that BRICS nations share common challenges, while each having their own unique problems. "We can learn from each other's good practices and draw lessons from mistakes," he commented.

Wang also said that cultural communication is the basis for political and economic cooperation. "I believe it will be a key issue in the coming decade of BRICS development."

The two-day seminar took place on the eve of the Ninth BRICS Summit to be held in Xiamen, Fujian Province, in early September. The event included three parallel sessions themed enhancing reform for common development, increasing communication for cultural prosperity, and strengthening collaboration for global governance, respectively.

During the seminar, CIPG and research institutes from Russia, Brazil and India and South Africa's The Thinker magazine signed memorandums of understanding on further cooperation on information sharing, personnel exchanges, research projects and organizing forums.

(Reporting from Quanzhou)

Copyedited by Bryan Michael Galvan

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