Economic and trade ministers of the BRICS, a mechanism that groups the world's five emerging economies, have decided to set up a liaison group to intensify cooperation.

"This consensus indicates a concrete step in institutional building of deepened business cooperation of the BRICS countries," China's Minister of Commerce Chen Deming said at a joint press conference after the first BRICS Economic and Trade Ministers' Meeting held Wednesday in the southern Chinese beach resort of Sanya.

Chen said the liaison group will analyze the current economic cooperation and trade among the BRICS members and assess its future trend before it puts forward an institutional framework and specific measures to expand cooperation between the BRICS nations and South-South cooperation with other developing countries.

The meeting, chaired by Chen, was attended by Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma, South African Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies, Brazilian Deputy Foreign Minister Carneiro Leao and Russian Vice Minister of Economic Development Oleg Fomichev.

The BRICS nations have witnessed robust growth in trade over the past decade. From 2001 to 2010, trade among the five countries grew at an annual rate of 28 percent to reach nearly 230 billion U.S. dollars.

Chen said the ministers agreed to intensify cooperation among member countries through expanding mutual trade and investment and pledged to oppose trade protectionism.

Chen said the ministers shared the view that the world economy had been recovering since the global financial crisis in 2008.

However, the course of the recovery remains uneven and faces risks. In particular, the recent turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa as well as the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan have brought uncertainties to world economic development, Chen said.

He said the BRICS countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, have become "pacemakers" in global economic recovery, but they still face issues of economic overheating such as inflationary pressure and asset bubbles.

The ministers called on all countries to strengthen coordination on macro-economic policies so as to secure world economic recovery and achieve a robust, sustainable and balanced growth, Chen said.

Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma said at the press conference that the five BRICS countries should intensify coordination in the fields of agriculture, food safety and high-end manufacturing so as to maximize their advantages.

He said that the five nations should play a more important role in the reforms of international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

South African Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies said he hoped the BRICS mechanism could become a model for international cooperation.

Davies said South Africa had established good and profound cooperative relationships with other BRICS countries. South Africa's export to other BRICS countries increased four times from 2006 to 2010 and import from the countries doubled during the same period.

The ministers also reiterated their support for Russia to join the World Trade Organization in 2011.

Russian Vice Minister of Economic Development Oleg Fomichev expressed his appreciation to other BRICS nations for their support, and said Russia will join hands with them in expanding bilateral and multilateral economic and trade cooperation.

The ministers also maintained that it was necessary for the BRICS countries to strengthen communication and coordination in the Group of 20, climate change negotiations, development cooperation and other multilateral arenas so that the interests of developing countries would be better upheld.

Brazilian Deputy Foreign Minister Carneiro Leao said the five countries should not only strengthen cooperation within the BRICS mechanism, but also intensify coordination under the frameworks of the Group of 20 and the WTO.

The April 14 BRICS summit, under the theme of "Broad Vision, Shared Prosperity", will be the first meeting for leaders of the five countries after South Africa being invited to join the group late last year.

Leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China held their first meeting in Yekaterinburg, Russia in June 2009 and convened again in Brasilia, Brazil in April 2010.