External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar has said that resilience has become central to every nation’s economic strategy, along with the need to foster and promote sustainability through deeper cooperation and stronger partnerships.
Dr. Jaishankar was addressing the BRICS Business Forum in New Delhi this morning, ahead of the BRICS Leaders’ Summit beginning tomorrow. He said BRICS brings together economies with diverse yet complementary resources, markets, capabilities and experience. He said the grouping provides a platform to compare approaches, strengthen substantive arrangements and widen the choices available to member countries.
The External Affairs Minister said, this year marks a milestone for BRICS as the grouping completes 20 years of institutionalised cooperation. He said BRICS has evolved substantially over the years in terms of its membership, agenda and mechanisms of cooperation. He added that India’s chairship this year seeks to carry this evolution forward under the theme, “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability”.
Dr. Jaishankar said the Summit is taking place at a time when the global political and economic order is undergoing significant changes. He said volatility, uncertainty and complexity have become defining features of the world today. He noted that the world is witnessing the economic consequences of geopolitical conflicts, pandemics and climate-related disruptions. Dr. Jaishankar said technology has always been inseparable from economics and geopolitics.
He noted that digital public infrastructure, artificial intelligence, fintech and advanced manufacturing offer major opportunities, but also raise questions relating to access, standards, security and trust. The External Affairs Minister said India’s chairship has therefore sought to strengthen the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem. This includes the BRICS Incubator Network, aimed at connecting start-ups and incubators across member countries, complemented by the BRICS Startup Innovation Fund to support innovation-driven entrepreneurship.
Addressing the opening session of the Forum, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal called upon BRICS nations to work together to translate their economic strengths into jobs, wealth and prosperity for their people. He said BRICS countries represent nearly half of humanity and around 40 percent of global GDP. Mr. Goyal said BRICS now accounts for nearly one-fourth of global trade, with India emerging as an important pillar of intra-BRICS trade. The Union Minister said engineering goods and electronics constitute the largest segments of India’s manufactured exports.
He added that India, known as the pharmacy of the world, sees BRICS as an important market for pharmaceuticals and other Indian products. Mr. Goyal stressed that trade among BRICS partners should be deep, resilient and supported by diversified supply chains, ensuring that trade does not become an impediment to the growth and well-being of people in member countries. He also called upon BRICS nations to open their markets to each other’s products, including raw materials and critical minerals.
Mr Goyal said, India has taken significant initiatives in laying out a digital public infrastructure. He said today India’s Unified Payment Interface has crossed over 250 Billion transactions a a year representing more than half of the transaction by volume across the world. The Minister said, today it is also accepted in eleven countries in the world. He urged BRICS members and partner countries to link India’s payment system, trade in each other’s local currencies, make digital trade global and build together for the future emerging technologies.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Minister of Economic Development Maksim Reshetnikov said BRICS countries represent a quarter of the global economy and constitute a powerful voice for a sustainable future. He said member countries are committed to taking concrete steps to foster resilient supply chains, accelerate the green and digital transition, and unlock the vast potential of their markets.
Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jitin Prasada said the way forward for the BRICS Business Forum should focus not only on traditional trade but also on digital services. He said the success of the forum should not be judged by the size of the economies, but by concrete outcomes – how technologies are deployed, how innovation is scaled up, how much investment is mobilised and how many jobs are created. Mr. Prasada said that under India’s chairship, two key priorities are balancing trade among member countries and increasing the share of services in trade. He added that collaboration in artificial intelligence could lead to higher productivity, improved standards of living and increased incomes, benefiting not only individuals but also MSMEs
