The BRICS summit kicked off with an agenda to tackle agricultural trade and develop SMEs.
22/08 BRICS Business Forum
The business forum saw representatives from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. They highlight key issues such as enhancing agricultural trade within the bloc along with developing small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) and economic cooperation. The representatives addressed the disparities among member nations to boost collective agricultural trade and suggested an increase in import-export activity of agricultural goods within the bloc.
“As a group (BRICS), we import just over $300 billion of agricultural products but a lot of this trade happens outside the bloc,” “India and China import roughly 85 percent of that (value) and we think they can import some of these products from Brazil and South Africa and increase trade within the bloc.” Wandile Sihlobo, Chairperson of the South Africa Agro-business working group.
“Agriculture is the “most important sector” in the BRICS. Countries in the group buy $315 billion of agricultural products and only 20 percent of this trade takes place with BRICS members. There is a huge potential to realize within our allies and interact with other countries in the African continent when it comes to agricultural trade,” Sergey Katyrin, Russia’s representative at the forum.
“We (BRICS) need to take a more dominant role in addressing agricultural policies. The trade barriers within the bloc are going to hugely impact agricultural productivity and the protectionist attitude among member nations might impact agricultural prosperity.” Jai Shroff, member of India’s BRICS Business Council
The business forum was also attended by the New Development Bank (NDB). This is a multilateral development bank established by Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa (BRICS) to finance infrastructure & sustainable development projects. The New Development Bank was formed to support infrastructure and sustainable development efforts in BRICS and other underserved, emerging economies for faster development through innovation and cutting-edge technology. The bank will partner nations through capital and knowledge, achieving development goals with transparency and empathy and creating an equal opportunity for the development of all countries.
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