Leaders from the world's five emerging economies gathered in Sanya City, south China's Hainan Province, for the BRICS summit on Thursday. Chinese President Hu Jintao will preside over the meeting.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South African President Jacob Zuma will attend the meeting at Hu's invitation.

The BRICS Summit, the third of its kind, will focus on global financial reforms, the international economic and financial situation, multi-polarity of global systems, development issues and cooperation among the member countries.

A document expected to be released after the summit will sum up BRICS countries' consensus on the global economy, international financial issues and developmental affairs, according to a Xinhua report.

The five leaders are expected to meet the media on Thursday and President Hu is scheduled to deliver a speech to elaborate on China's views on the current global economic situation and other major issues.

All the four foreign leaders have arrived in Sanya. Hu held talks with Medvedev, Singh and Zuma on Wednesday respectively. Hu met with Brazilian President Rousseff during her stay in Beijing on Tuesday.

The term of BRIC was first coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neil in 2001 to group four fast-growing economies -- Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Russia hosted the first summit of BRIC state leaders in 2009 and the second such gathering took place in Brazil in 2010. South Africa was invited to join the grouping in late 2010.

The five countries' population made up 42 percent of the world's total and their combined gross domestic product (GDP) accounted for 18 percent of the global GDP in 2010. Their trade volume took up 15 percent of the world's total last year.