BRIC’s Economic And Social Development

The world of the 21st century seems to be changing to a different one from the previous 20th century.While the 20th century was marked by the hegemony of the United States after the World War Ⅱ,the beginning of the 21st century witnessed the rising of a small number of countries to the world economic and political arena,shift-ing the global economy power from the developed to the developing world.The par-ticular about these countries was that they did not come from the developed world,on the contrary.These countries,namely Brazil,Russia,India and China,currently called as BRIC countries,are ranked as developing countries.These four countries,together,cover more than 20 percent of the land of the globe and possess approximately 40percent of the human population.After the BRIC’s rising,more developing coun-tries have entered the classification of emerging markets,adding more letters to the acronym BRIC:South Africa joined the group,widening the acronym to BRICS;later on Indonesia was included(BRIICS).Mexico,Turkey and others have also revealed as important emerging markets in the global economy,but the most important-due to its size,population numbers and GDPs-are the original BRIC countries.However,only two BRIC countries,China and Brazil,have currently a social-ist component and other similarities on their fast and huge economic development.In case of China,its socialist component and economic development are obvious:The People’s Republic of China is a socialist country that has opened to market forces since 1978.Since then,its huge and fast growing has ranked the country as the world’s second largest economy on the world,a milestone in modern and contempo-rary history.On the other hand,Brazil has experienced trade liberalization and eco-nomic growth after changing his Import Substitution policy,catapulting the country to the world’s sixth largest economy.Since the 2003 Presidential term of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva(founding member of Brazil’s Workers’ Party),Brazil has been making broad social reforms,taking poverty and economic growth as their development ob-jectives.Moreover,both countries,China and Brazil,despite huge improvement in their people’s livelihood and amazing economic growth in the last 30 years,face similar challenges to its pace of development as,for example,high levels of income inequali-ty among its people.Therefore,this study seeks to contrast and compare China and Brazil’s eco-nomic and social development,especially focused during the years of 1996-2006,describe the major changes of their economies to open and face market forces,the importance of China-Brazil bilateral relations,the challenges of income gaps of its population and other problems-challenges on their economies,what experts from na-tional and international organization and think-tank research centers as Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD),the Inter-American Develop-ment Bank(IDB),the Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean(INTAL),the World Bank,the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean(ECLAC),中国社会科学院拉丁美洲研究所,中国社会科学院 and other organizations and research centers say about each country’s devel-opment.To conclude this study,I will summarize,after a through careful examination,the lessons,better practices and conclusions of both countries’ path of development that China and Brazil can learn from each other.This study is divided into the following five chapters:Chapter 1 contains the introduction to the topic,and describes why I choose this topic of research,what has been done on this subject by academics worldwide,the data and material used for carrying out my research and the research method.Chapter 2 gives a general background of both China and Brazil.This chapter provides the reader the background of China’s economic development and Brazil’s economic growth.This chapter is divided into five sections:1)a brief history of Chi-na-Brazil bilateral relations;2)a brief description of Chinese economic reform(改革开放)and its impact on China’s development;3)a description and brief summary of Brazilian Import Substitution(IS);4)examination of the Real stabilization program(Plano Real);5)an outline and discussion of Brazil’s Trade Liberalization(BTL)and its influence on the country’s development.Chapter 3 examines and analyzes the economic development of both countries,focusing on trade performance of both China and Brazil after their economic and trade reforms,especially on data from 1996-2006 and the means of development used for boom the international and domestic trade.This chapter is divided into three sec-tions:1)Using data collected from Chinese governmental ministries and departments-中国对外经济贸易,中华人民共和国商务部(MofCOM),中华人民共和国海关总署,中华人民共和国国家统设局-,中国社会科学院拉丁美洲研究所(ILAS),中国社会科学院(CASS),combined with papers and academic works published by specialists on Brazil and China development,as Professors Mauricio Mesquita Moreira,Renato Baumman and other academics,to analyze the economic and trade performance of China and Brazil between 1996-2006;2)analyze the increasing im-portance-mostly for Brazil-of China-Brazil bilateral trade relations;3)evolution and current situation of Intellectual Property Rights(IPRs)on both countries,China and Brazil.Chapter 4 examines and analyzes China and Brazil social development.This chapter is divided into two sections:1)examination of the transportation infrastruc-ture and its development as a mean for boost trade and production for international and domestic markets and,therefore,economic growth;and 2)income gap and unbal-anced development of different regions inside both countries(rural versus urban areas,East Coast versus the Inner lands)Chapter 5 concentrates on exposing and analyzing the main arguments drawn from the papers and research works mentioned on Chapter 3 and 4,plus others works about the Chinese and Brazilian lessons for economic and social development.This chapter is divided into five sections:1)what are the main lessons of China and Bra-zil’s economic and social development?In this section we describe the experiences,lessons and experts’ point of view about what have been done in both countries;2)we have a close look at one the first lesson abstract from the previous analysis on Chapter 2 to 4:China as a success development story;3)we deeper on China as a model for Brazil for some development aspects,mentioning the Chinese lessons to Brazil eco-nomic growth and social development;while in section 4)I do the opposite of previ-ous 2 sections and describe the Brazil experiences that will be helpful to China’s de-velopment and other developing economies.Section 5)explores the importance of IPRs and the association between strong IPRs enforcement and its influence to devel-opment in developing economies;finally,in section 6)I bring into light what are the risks and challenges both China and Brazil will face after a fast economic growth and a slow down on global economy due to a generalized recession in the developed-consumer economies.This study concludes with a review of the main conclusions and lessons of both countries development,and a summary of the opportunities and mutual benefits from China-Brazil bilateral relations for the near future in terms of trade,social de-velopment and diplomacy-taking advantage of their economic global power to posi-tioning themselves as leading global players and representatives of the multi-polar world of 21st century.