In honor of the BRICS summit that is to be held in Xiamen in September, the XMU School of Economics organized the Xiamen University BRICS Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum with staunch support from the relevant departments of the Ministry of Commerce, China Association of International Trade, China Association for International Economic Cooperation and some other organizations.

Themed as “Novel partnership in an open global economy”, this forum gathered a host of experts and scholars from the China Academy of Social Sciences, China Center for International Economic Exchanges, Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation as well as some universities including Beijing Normal University, University of International Business and Economics and Xiamen University. Some representatives from the chambers of commerce of Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa were also invited to the forum for discussion and communication, in the hope that relevant sectors and businesses could access and acquire more practical information and strategies of great reference value other than theoretical or academic discussions. More than 400 people attended the forum, including the representatives of the Import and Export Chambers of Commerce from all over the country, representatives of businesses and the teachers and students of Xiamen University.

The opening ceremony was held at the XMU School of Economy on the morning of April 2, this simple yet grand ceremony was hosted by Hong Yongmiao, Professor of Xiamen University and also Chair Professor of Cornell University. He noted it is a great honor for the School of Economics to hold the Forum to explore new types of partnerships in the context of an open world economy, and extended his cordial welcome to all.

Zhan Xinli, Vice president of XMU and Han Jingyi, Vice Mayor of Xiamen delivered opening speeches respectively. Zhan said that on the eve of the BRICS last September the XMU BRICS Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum was held to discuss how to build new partnerships, enhance dialogue on the researches regarding economic and trade cooperation, put heads together about the latest ideas and cutting-edge issues. Han pointed out that all the BRICS countries are important sources of imports and key emerging markets for Xiamen, and recent years have witnessed the exponential growth of the total import and export volume of Xiamen with the BRICS countries. He also hoped that this forum could translate into concrete measures to drive the cooperation with BRICS countries and lead Xiamen towards a better tomorrow.

Following the opening ceremony, eight scholars delivered key-note speeches, probing from different angles such topics as the cooperation mechanism of an open world economy, the restructuring of the global value chain, the outlook for the global economic and trade partnerships as well as the new topics that have come up along the way.

In the afternoon, the forum entered into the session of interactive discussion. At first, Chinese experts and the representatives of the chambers of commerce from Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa engaged in a heated discussion on the topic of “Market potentials and business opportunities of foreign trade and international investment and cooperation among BRICS countries”. The second round of discussion went on among the scholars from the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, Beijing Normal University, University of International Business and Economics and Xiamen University who voiced their views and offered their thoughts and advice around the theme “Forging economic and trade partnership in an open global economy”.

2017 will be the “Year of China” for BRICS countries, and the 9^th BRICS summit is to be held in Xiamen, China on the theme of “Deepening the BRICS partnership and Building a bright future”. As a warm-up of the summit, Xiamen University BRICS Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum will integrate academic intelligence with business savvy, and provide a broad platform for exchange of views and experience with regard to how to herald a novel partnership in the global economy.

He Yongfang, The School of Economics

Edited by: Wang Xu