THE NEXT STARS
When comparing emerging economies, it is worthwhile to consider more than just economic growth rates. The nations' capacity to develop thriving welfare systems and ensure human development is also key. From this perspective, it seems that Colombia, Mexico, and Singapore will outperform even the BRICS. These non-BRICS nations have figured out that sustaining high economic growth rates requires investing in people and, unless the BRICS reach that conclusion as well, they will not do as well as observers might expect.
In that sense, the welfare-focused nations of Colombia, Mexico, and Singapore might make for better models than the BRICS for the rest of the developing world. They are less interested in becoming global powers and are, instead, focused on social welfare, something that other smaller emerging economies, such as Ghana, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Poland, and Thailand can certainly appreciate.