The forum is taking place in Moscow ahead of the BRICS Summit, which will be held in Kazan on October 22–24 and will include the new participants in the association for the first time. On January 1, 2024, Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia became full participants in BRICS alongside Brazil, India, China, Russia and South Africa.
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President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sergei Katyrin: Mr President,
Colleagues, friends,
I would like to report that the annual meeting of the BRICS Business Council was held yesterday with the participation of the Council’s national representatives. During the meeting, my colleagues and I approved the annual report, which reflects our performance over the past year, as well as the most relevant proposals from the BRICS business community on further deepening market integration and trade and economic cooperation within the association. This document will be handed over to the heads of BRICS states at the summit in Kazan.
Today, we are holding this year’s BRICS Business Forum, which is a key annual event.
The forum has brought together over 1,000 representatives of the business community, including heads of companies, associations, unions of entrepreneurs, and chambers of commerce and industry from the BRICS countries. We plan to discuss cooperation in finance and investment, transport and logistics, agriculture, information and food security, and sustainable development. We also plan to congratulate the winners of the BRICS international competition of best practices and the BRICS Women’s Startup Competition.
Mr President, on behalf of all the participants at the forum, I would like to thank you for personally attending this meeting, for speaking at this forum, and I ask you to take the floor for your welcoming remarks.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Ladies and gentlemen, friends,
I am sincerely delighted to welcome everyone to the BRICS Business Forum.
I would like to note the wide representation of participants in this hall. We have leading business representatives from every country in the BRICS group. Your companies have been successfully cooperating for a long time, implementing impressive joint projects across a variety of domains: industry and energy, transport and infrastructure, agriculture and the digital economy.
I would like to note, in particular, that this forum is attended by business leaders from countries that became full participants on January 1, 2024. These are our colleagues and friends from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.
I would like to emphasise that as the current chair of BRICS, Russia strives to facilitate integration of new members into all cooperation mechanisms. We saw that representatives from the new BRICS countries were warmly received in the Business Council, and they, too, became actively involved in its work.
The theme of Russia’s BRICS Chairmanship in 2024 is Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security. A meaningful action plan is being implemented to advance the partners on three major tracks – politics and security, economy and finance, and cultural and humanitarian ties.
To date, the progress on the plan exceeds 80 percent. Over 200 events, meetings, conferences, and industry gatherings have been held, as well as most of the expert and ministerial meetings. However, the BRICS summit, which will open next week in the Russian city of Kazan, will be the central event.
It is symbolic that the leaders’ meeting in Kazan is preceded by this Business Forum, which underscores the importance of close economic partnership between our countries, promoting trade and investment, and deepening cooperation.
The BRICS partners’ joint efforts aimed at accelerating socioeconomic growth and ensuring sustainable development bring concrete, tangible results and in fact, contribute to improving the well-being and quality of life of our countries’ citizens. The numbers speak for themselves. I am sure you are generally aware of most of the figures, but I will allow myself to cite a few of them.
The association’s total GDP exceeds US$60 trillion, and its overall share in global GDP easily surpasses that of the so-called G7, and it continues to grow.
I have already stated this publicly when meeting with your Russian colleagues, but I will repeat it once again here, in this hall and in your presence. In 1992, the G7 accounted for 45.5 percent of global GDP and BRICS countries accounted for 16.7 percent. In 2023, our group of countries accounted for 37.4 percent while the G7 for 29.3 percent. The gap is increasing and will continue to grow; this is inevitable. This trend is absolutely logical. In the past decade, BRICS states have accounted for over 40 percent of the global GDP increment.
By the end of 2024, BRICS countries are forecasted to post four percent growth, on the average. This exceeds G7 growth rates, which is only 1.7 percent, and the global average, projected at 3.2 percent.
BRICS accounts for approximately a quarter of global goods exports, with companies from BRICS countries dominating several key markets, including energy resources, metals and food – markets that are essential for sustainable economic development. In short, BRICS already plays a significant role in the global economy, and its influence will undoubtedly increase in the future.
In fact, BRICS countries are a driving force of worldwide economic growth. In the foreseeable future, BRICS alone will contribute the bulk of the global GDP increment.
Our association is building upon relevant development platforms, including communication channels, technological and educational standards, financial systems, payment tools and, of course, mechanisms for sustainable and long-term investment. As a result, the impact of external influence on the economic growth of BRICS members will diminish steadily. Essentially, this is what economic sovereignty is all about: it amounts to a partnership between self-sufficient economies that expands their potential many times over and opens up new opportunities.
To be continued.