The 16th BRICS summit is being held in Kazan on October 22–24 as part of the Russian chairmanship under the motto “Strengthening multilateralism for equitable global development and security.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Chinese President Xi Jinping, UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Luis Ieker Vieira held a narrow-format summit meeting.
The work continued with an expanded meeting.
Sergey Katyrin, President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Chairman of the BRICS Business Council in 2024, spoke at the meeting.
Addressing the heads of state and government of the BRICS member countries and participants, he noted that this year the BRICS Business Council continued to actively promote flagship initiatives aimed at strengthening partnership within the association.
"I would like to note that in our work we tried, firstly, to maintain the continuity of the agenda of our Business Council, and secondly, to supplement it with new relevant initiatives in accordance with the requests that we received from the business communities of our countries," he said.
At the same time, according to Sergey Katyrin, priority attention was given to the harmonious integration of representatives of the new BRICS member states into the work.
The agenda culminated in the BRICS Business Forum held on October 18 in Moscow, which was attended by about 1,000 representatives of the business community of the association's countries. The work was carried out within the framework of four panel sessions, which covered almost all relevant areas of business cooperation. The forum also hosted the awarding of the winners of the International BRICS Best Practices Competition and the BRICS Women's Startup Competition.
The main results of the forum and the proposals developed by the BRICS Business Council formed the basis of the annual report. "We included 46 recommendations in this document for the further development of cooperation in the following key areas: infrastructure, transport and logistics, financial services and investment, agriculture, trade and international cooperation, digital economy and artificial intelligence, energy, green economy and climate, aviation and industry, and professional training," noted Sershey Katyrin.
Given the high importance of transport development as a primary condition for expanding international trade, much attention in the Council's work was paid to strengthening transport and logistics interconnectivity, developing international transport corridors, developing modern intermodal logistics solutions, and creating a "seamless" transport infrastructure, he said.
The second priority block of issues, which formed the core of the Business Council's agenda this year, is related to the formation of a sustainable BRICS financial system.
"In this regard, much attention was paid to developing new mechanisms for international settlements, payment services, compiling BRICS credit ratings within BRICS, as well as developing cooperation in insurance markets," Sergei Katyrin clarified. The third priority area that the BRICS Business Council worked on during the year was the development of the digital economy, as well as cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence. In this context, the efforts of the Business Council were aimed at promoting initiatives that contribute to the creation of a unified digital infrastructure, the joint use of biometric identification systems, the development of information security and digital inclusiveness.
"In addition, an important place on the agenda of the Business Council was occupied by issues of increasing the level of food security, cooperation in the field of investment, sustainable development, as well as ensuring the technological sovereignty of the BRICS countries," added Sergey Katyrin.
In conclusion, Sergey Katyrin assured that the BRICS Business Council will continue to fully promote the development and realization of the potential of economic cooperation of the association, guided by the principles of continuity, openness, mutual trust, respect and consideration of the interests of each party.
Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation Vladimir Padalko is taking part in the summit.
Photo: Sergey Bobylev / photo host agency brics-russia2024.ru.
