“During the pandemic, there has been a great shift in organizing joint work and developing solutions on the most difficult and topical issues of developing business cooperation,” said Sergei Katyrin, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, speaking on Tuesday August 31 at the annual meeting of the BRICS Business Council. The meeting was held remotely - the President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry participated in it from Vladivostok.Electronic mailing lists usually are fully or partially automated through the use of special mailing list software and a reflector address set up on a server capable of receiving email. Incoming messages sent to the reflector address are processed by the software, and, depending on their content, are acted upon internally (in the case of messages containing commands directed at the software itself) or are distributed to all email addresses subscribed to the mailing list.

Katyrin heads the delegation of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation participating in the Eastern Economic Forum - 2021, which takes place in Maritime Kray.

The President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry thanked his Indian colleagues for continuing the Russian initiative to hold the BRICS Best Practices Competition and expressed hope that the format for exchanging best practices on topical issues of the BRICS socio-economic development will become traditional for Business Council.

Following the results of the BRICS Best Practices Competition for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals this year, two Russian projects from Russian Railways and En + Group were recognized as the best in their nominations. In particular, in the nomination "Goal 7 - Sources of Inexpensive and Clean Energy" the winner was the Russian Railways company with a project of a heat installation using old-year wooden sleepers as fuel. The essence of the project is the use of wooden sleepers, unsuitable for re-laying on the way, to provide heat supply to railway transport facilities.

In the category "Goal 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation" the best environmental project was "360" from the En + Group. The annual environmental project "360" En + Group is part of a comprehensive program to protect Lake Baikal and protected areas of Russia from adverse environmental impacts. The history of the project began in 2011. Today, in addition to annual large-scale cleanings, 360 volunteers build eco-trails, plant trees, improve the tourist infrastructure, and help specially protected natural areas.

In his remarks Katyrin also noted the high organizational and content level of the online format of the BRICS Business Forum and the BRICS Virtual Exhibition. “The virtual exhibition is our first joint experience,” stressed the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“The organization of the BRICS virtual exhibition area is a valuable acquisition for the Business Council,” Katyrin said. According to him, "this topic has good prospects within the framework of the Business Council as a tool for practical communication of entrepreneurs, search for partners, promotion of relevant goods and services within the BRICS, and the development of project activities."

The trade show took place on August 16-18 in a virtual format. More than 550 companies from the BRICS countries are registered on the exhibition platform. The developed platform allows companies not only to organize a virtual exposition, but also to post materials about the company, to schedule and hold B2B meetings.

Katyrin noted the active work and productive dialogue of the working groups in all areas. According to him, colleagues from the working groups have done a really great job and the result of this work is a draft annual report with a solid package of interesting recommendations.

Onkar Kanwar, Chairman of the Indian section of the BRICS Business Council, Jackson Schneider, Chairman of the Brazilian section of the BRICS Business Council, Captain Xu Lirong, Chairman of the Chinese section of the BRICS Business Council, Busi Mabuza, Chairman of the South African section of the BRICS Business Council also addressed the meeting participants with opening remarks.

By Peter Cheremushkin