On April 3, Vice President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vladimir Padalko spoke at the session “Looking into the future: joining BRICS and developing trade”, held at the conference “BRICS 2.0 - new countries and new opportunities”.
The session was organized by the Russian National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Russia).
ICC Russia Secretary General Tatyana Monagan addressed the audience with a welcoming speech, and the session was moderated by Anton Sviridenko, Executive Director of the P.A. Stolypin Institute for Growth Economics.
Vladimir Padalko focused on the role and tasks of the BRICS Business Council, noting that this structure was created by the decision of the leaders of the BRICS countries on the sidelines of the V BRICS summit in Durban (South Africa) in March 2013. As he emphasized, the Business Council is considered by the leadership of the association countries as one of the key tools for promoting the development of trade, economic and business ties in BRICS. One of the main tasks of the BC, said Vladimir Padalko, is to develop recommendations to the leaders of the member countries, the implementation of which will contribute to the sustainable development of both the economies of our countries and BRICS as an association as a whole. Over the decade of work of the Business Council, solid positive experience has been accumulated.
As part of Russia's chairmanship of the Business Council this year, active promotion of initiatives aimed at strengthening the BRICS partnership continues, including taking measures to improve the regulation of mutual trade, ensuring greater openness of markets, creating a favorable investment climate within the association, developing independent sustainable financial, transport and -logistics and other infrastructure of foreign economic activity.
The main “challenge” in the context of expansion is seen as the harmonious integration of newcomer countries - Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia - into the current agenda of our work, noted Vladimir Padalko.
The trade representative of Russia in the UAE Andrei Terekhin spoke at the session and spoke in detail about the features of the Emirates’ economy, the priorities of foreign economic policy and the country’s approaches to membership in BRICS.
According to Sergei Mikhnevich, Managing Director of the Office of International Multilateral Cooperation and Integration of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, who took part in the session, the main objectives of BRICS are the creation of an independent system of international payments, demonstration of specific positive results of membership in the association for participating countries and significant development of investment cooperation within the BRICS framework, which has so far clearly “falls short” of trade turnover.
The meeting was also attended by Trade Representative of India in the Russian Federation Ved Prakash Singh, Trade Attaché of the Iranian Embassy in the Russian Federation Mohsen Rahimi and Head of the Trade and Economic Department of the UAE Embassy in the Russian Federation Ahmed Al-Shehhi, who spoke about cooperation with Russia and the approaches of their countries to interaction within the BRICS framework.
By Dmitry Bystrov,
Department of External Relations