(From L to R) South African Minister of Trade and Industry Ebrahim Patel, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi listen as Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his remarks virtually during the 2023 BRICS Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on Aug. 22 (AFP)

Michael Goddard, the president of Netley Group, told Sputnik that the process of de-dollarization is happening at a steady rate within the BRICS group and in the global economy, although more work needs to be done to accelerate the process.

"It will be amazing if BRICS can come up with some gold-backed trading currency," Goddard indicated, highlighting that "de-dollarization is happening fast. Over the last 20 years, you see the share of global payments in the dollar has gone down at a steady rate. This is getting even faster now."

At the same time, to "truly de-dollarize", several aspects should be taken into account, the president of the company registered in Russia to attract investments and start businesses pointed out.

"For example, if BRICS can get together and somewhat back the currency maybe with gold reserves of Russia, China, India, whoever, you could come up with a trade currency, sort of the currency that you have in your pocket to spend, but this will be an electronic currency for trade," Goddard explained.

"Then you can very quickly get a significant share of global trade done in that currency."

"The harder part", according to Netley Group President, lies in the reserve aspect of the currency. For instance, the United States' big advantage at the moment is the breadth of its bond market, he said.

"One of the ways, I think, BRICS could develop something to compete with that would be the technology to actually link the BRICS bond markets," the entrepreneur suggested.

"So, if you could create a somewhat gold-backed BRICS currency and, at the same time, link the bond markets of all of the BRICS countries and other friendly countries to BRICS via technology, you can then create a global bond market of incredible depth," he added.

Goddard stated that combining a stable trade currency and a strong joint bond market could create the potential to eventually replace the dollar.

He further said this process could be even sped up with the enlargement of BRICS and increasing the depth of these economic ties.

It is noteworthy that at the last BRICS summit in South Africa, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the BRICS leadership has decided to invite Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia to join the group.