The Bretton Woods system has failed the developing sector nations, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated bluntly in his address to the Expanded Plenary of the BRICS Summit today. Action is required, and it cannot be postponed, he insisted. The BRICS must ensure that the international financial system serves the new, anti-hegemonic world coming into being around the BRICS. Unable to attend the Kazan summit in person because of a fall, Lula spoke by videoconference, despite the far earlier hour in Brasilia. Here is how he outlined this concept:
”[F]inancial flows continue to go to rich nations. It’s a Marshall Plan in reverse, in which emerging and developing economies finance the developed world.
“The BRICS initiatives and institutions break with this logic….
“The New Development Bank (NDB) … is designed to succeed where the Bretton Woods institutions continue to fail. Instead of offering programs that impose conditionalities, the NDB finances projects aligned with national priorities. Instead of deepening disparities, its governance is based on equal voting rights.
“Now is the time to move forward in creating alternative means of payment for transactions between our countries. It’s not a question of replacing our currencies. But we must work to ensure that the multipolar order we are aiming for is reflected in the international financial system.
