Brazil’s Finance Minister, Fernando Haddad, stated on the opening day of a BRICS group of emerging countries conference that a tax reform that will restructure the country’s complex consumption taxes will be completed this year.
The reform, which has been attempted unsuccessfully by previous administrations, is a critical step in President Luiz Inacio Lula’s strategy to improve economic growth.
The city of Johannesburg will host the 15th meeting of heads of state from China, Russia, India, Brazil, and South Africa, who will discuss the group’s future despite a notable decline in US power and the global advance of de-dollarization.
The BRICS leaders’ summit, the first to be held in person since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, is expected to be attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to participate in the BRICS summit by videoconference. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be present at the meeting in Johannesburg.
According to the Foreign Ministry of the organizing country, more than 60 leaders of Africa and the Global South were invited, as well as senior diplomatic officials such as the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Antonio Guterres, the Chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki, and the President of the BRICS New Development Bank, former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, among many others.
