On June 29, the 2017 BRICS Think Tank Symposium, organized by COSC, took place in Beijing. COSC Chairman Wang Zhongwei attended and addressed the opening ceremony. Xu Lin, Counsellor of the State Council, former Director of Hanban and former Director General of the Confucius Institute Headquarters, attended the symposium. Sun Weijia, Director General of the COSC Department of International Exchanges and Cooperation chaired the opening ceremony.

The symposium was held in the run-up to the BRICS Leaders’ Meeting to be held in Xiamen in September. Experts from seven think tanks, including the Institute of the Far East of Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Economics of Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute for Applied Economic Research of Brazil, Ministry of Planning of Brazil, the Observer Research Foundation of India, Pearson Institute of Higher Education of South Africa, the Human Science Research Council of South Africa participated in the symposium.

In his address, Wang Zhongwei said that this year is China’s BRICS Year and marks the second decade of BRICS. The 9th BRICS Leaders’ Meeting will take place in Xiamen, Fujian from 3 to 5 September. President Xi Jinping has emphasized that “BRICS countries are a community of shared interests and future. We will uphold the BRICS spirit of win-win cooperation, follow the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, stay committed to development, and implement multilateralism and basic norms of international relations. As along as we are united in the same purpose and action, BRICS cooperation will yield bountiful fruits and enter the second golden decade. As the chair, China will fulfill the important mission of starting the second decade of BRICS cooperation, work with the other four countries, explore “BRICS+” dialogue and cooperation, build extensive partnerships and make BRICS cooperation more fruitful.

Counsellor Huang Yiyang of the Department of International Economics of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reviewed in his address the history of BRICS cooperation, particularly the achievements in economic development, global governance, people-to-people exchange and institution building. He briefed the audience on the preparations for the BRICS meeting in Xiamen and commended the important role of think tank exchanges in BRICS cooperation.

Wu Sike, member of the MFA Foreign Policy Advisory Committee and the Public Diplomacy Advisory Committee, Chen Mingming, member of the Public Diplomacy Advisory Committee, Liang Yanfen, Director of the Institute of the World Economy of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, MOFCOM, Zhu Jiejin, Deputy Director of the BRICS Research Center of Fudan University, Wang Lei, Director of the BRICS Cooperation Center of Beijing Normal University, as well as about 50 experts from Russia, Brazil, India, South Africa and China attended the symposium.

At the one-day symposium, experts had wide-ranging discussions on topics such as “Deepen BRICS cooperation for common development”, “Enhance global governance to jointly meet challenges”, “Carry out people-to-people exchanges to support BRICS cooperation” and “Make institutional improvements and build broader partnerships” and offered constructive suggestions on the program of the 9th BRICS Leaders’ Meeting in September and BRICS cooperation in the second decade of BRICS countries.