Introduction

The emerging economies first caught the public’s attention in 2001 when Jim O’Neill, then the chairman of Goldman Sachs’ asset management division, coined the acronym BRIC depicting the four emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India and the People’s Republic of China. ¹ At the time these countries appeared to have the best prospects in the developing world for high sustained rates of growth. The BRICs have three things in common: they each have a large population; cheap labour markets; and a vast amount of untapped potential. It was O’Neill’s contention that while these countries might differ in other regards, these factors positioned the countries to take advantage of the growing opportunities afforded in a world of rapidly growing export markets and capital flows.