BRICS events this month to deepen economic ties among 5 nations

New Delhi: The 5-nation BRICS group will hold 3 major events here this month, including a trade fair and a business forum meeting, to deepen economic engagement, the Commerce Ministry said Monday.

The programmes planned in the national capital are 3-day BRICS trade fair from October 13; BRICS Business Forum and BRICS Business Council meetings on October 13 and 14.

A major agenda of the grouping - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - is to reform the global governance architecture which is yet to reflect the changing global scenario where the emerging economies are playing a larger role, the ministry said in a statement.

Another agenda for the BRICS economies is to work with the international community in keeping the multilateral trading system stable, it said.

"Even as BRICS nations work together towards achieving these objectives, there is a need felt for measures to be taken to deepen intra-BRICS economic engagement, trade and investment ties," it said.

Intra-BRICS trade increased to USD 297 billion in 2014 from USD 281.4 billion in 2012.

Globally, merchandise imports from the world into the BRICS countries have gone up from USD 2.95 trillion in 2012 to USD 3.03 trillion in 2014.

Likewise, the global merchandise exports of the BRICS countries have gone up from USD 3.2 trillion in 2012 to USD 3.47 trillion in 2014.

"This encouraging trend needs to be strengthened as trade amongst BRICS nations is less than 5 per cent of their total global trade," the statement said.

Elaborating on the events, it said the first BRICS trade fair and exhibition will be staged just ahead of the BRICS political summit in Goa on October 15.

The focus of the fair is, 'Building BRICS - Innovation for Collaboration'.

The fair will showcase about 20 key sectors including aerospace, agro-processing, auto, chemicals, green energy, healthcare and pharma, railways, textiles, infrastructure, IT, tourism, gems and jewellery.

It will be a platform for BRICS countries to exhibit the state-of-the-art technologies and advances made in industrial development.

"The idea is to help technology solution providers from BRICS countries to share knowledge and expertise in dealing with the common development challenges in areas such as healthcare, education, energy efficiency, waste management and urbanization management," it said.

Besides, business leaders from BIMSTEC (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand) have been invited for meetings and discussions with the BRICS business leaders and companies at the fair.

Further, participation from over 1,000 business delegates

from all BRICS countries is expected in the day long business forum meet.

The vice president of New Development Bank and the senior team will join this forum and share ideas on how the private sector can support its efforts to promote sustainable development projects across BRICS countries.

BRICS Business Council will hold focused seminars and workshops concurrent with the fair.

The seven working groups in the areas of infrastructure, manufacturing, financial services, energy, skills development, agribusiness and deregulation that have been formed under the aegis of the Council will engage to better understand the market opportunities and build synergies.

"Through the various programmes that will be held, it is expected that many suggestions would emerge to take forward and implement the action plan contained in the BRICS strategy for economic partnership," the commerce ministry said.