THE BRICS IN THE GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS: AN EMPIRICAL NOTE

The ‘BRICs’2 has been an increasingly popular concept in both the public media and academia. The countries of this group of emerging markets share as common characteristics large populations, less developed but fast growing economies, and governments willing to embrace global markets. Quantum changes are predicted in global economic power, with the BRIC countries gaining progressive impor-tance and eventually becoming four of the six largest economies in world by 2050 (Wilson and Purushothaman, 2005).Moreover, buoyed by their rising economic power, the BRICs states will keep expanding their diplomatic influence and play-ing more important roles in the international arena both regionally and globally. Fundamentally, the BRICs phenomenonmirrors a general shift in the international balance of power, with the centre of gravity moving from the North to the South. The implications of the rise of the BRICs are certainly large for the world economy, even if the reality might sensibly differ from the projections conducted by the analysts at Goldman Sachs (O’Neill, 2007). Whether the forecasts will be met depends on how the BRICs improve the growth-supportive policy settings, such as macroeconomic stability, strong and stable political institutions, openness to trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), and a higher level of education