makingit_16_pp6-13_globalforum_print 29/07/2014 15:47 Page 7
For further discussion of the issues raised in Making It, please visit the magazine website at www.makingitmagazine.net and the social networking Facebook site. Readers are encouraged to surf on over to these sites to join in the online discussion and debate about industry for development. BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa)” and outlined the problems facing each of them. Oliver then went on to say that “doubts about the utility of the BRICS acronym are misguided”. I disagree. It was the economist Jim O’Neill who came up with the acronym, claiming these countries could rival the advanced economies. But grouping them together was always a superficial idea. Now O’Neill has come up with a new acronym – the MINTs – to form an even more tenuous grouping of Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey. Most of these countries remain trapped in the North-South division of labour of supplying raw
materials to the advanced economies. This makes them highly vulnerable to the ups and downs of the commodities markets. When the Chinese boom helped pull commodity prices up, the BRICS and MINTs economies did well. But now China is slowing down and commodity prices are in retreat. These labels of BRICS and MINTs help financial markets target countries where quick profits can be made, rather than sustained industrial development. With the US and Europe in depression, speculative money has rushed into countries such as Brazil and Turkey. But the money is now beginning to pull out, partly because the US economy
is looking a bit stronger and also because of the problems all the “emerging economies” themselves are struggling with. Oliver’s article has some interesting insights into the BRICS countries’ economic and political problems but they seem to be relevant for countries across the South not just those selected.
● James Holmes, website comment
South-South cooperation In the main article in issue #12, I think Martin Khor raises an important point when he says that “much has been made of increased trade among the countries of the South, but much
of it consists of intermediate components to be used in assembling goods destined for markets in the North.” The fact is that companies in the North do not ‘compete’ with companies in the South; they compete with other Northern companies, especially to see who can most rapidly and effectively outsource production to lowerwage countries in the South. Much of the import activity in global supply chains is in fully finished goods. There is fierce South-South competition between producers for contracts with Northern-led companies, but hardly any North-South ‘competition’ as such.
● John Tresadern, website comment
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