BRICS countries creating fair competition: preparing an investment platform and a grain exchange

BRICS countries are interested in investments, e-commerce and grain sales

At the meeting of the BRICS summit in an expanded format, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the average growth of the economies of the association's countries in 2024-2025 will amount to, according to preliminary estimates, 3.8% with an increase in global GDP of 3.2-3.3%. The share of BRICS countries in purchasing power parity by the end of 2024 will grow and reach 36.7% — this exceeds the share of the G7 countries.

The Russian leader put forward a number of proposals for the further development of the economies of the association's countries. Russia calls for the creation of a new BRICS investment platform to support national economies and countries of the Global South and East.

“The Russian presidency is ready to establish mutual information on the practices of launching online services for resolving disputes in e-commerce in order to create joint framework procedures for pre-trial dispute resolution in the future,” he added.

Vladimir Putin recalled Russian initiatives to establish a BRICS arbitration investment centre and develop a convention on the settlement of investment disputes. This will increase the security of capital investments.

Putin said that more than 2,500 special economic zones operate in the BRICS countries.

“We believe that it is important to establish direct ties between the management teams of such territories,” he emphasised.

Another proposal from the Russian side was the creation of a grain exchange, which will help form fair indicators of grain prices in the world. Over time, it can transform into a full-fledged trading exchange, Putin expressed hope. According to him, the exchange, created within the framework of the association of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, will become an alternative to existing pricing systems, which do not always reflect the real cost of grain.

Among the proposals are platforms for precious metals and logistics

Russia sees the expediency of creating a separate BRICS platform for precious metals and diamonds. There are various barriers in this market today, Putin noted.

“We consider it necessary to launch an interstate platform for fair competition,” the Russian president also suggested.

Russia proposed establishing a permanent BRICS tax secretariat.

As for the transport system, subgroups for transport and logistics have been created within the business council.

“The formation of a permanent BRICS logistics platform, preparation of a review of transport routes, opening of an electronic communications platform for transport, establishment of a reinsurance pool are being discussed,” Putin listed.

He also recalled the importance of cooperation in such areas as medicine, including nuclear medicine, culture and sports.

“In order to further develop the BRICS Games, we propose developing a special interstate programme and establishing a coordinating body,” the head of Russia said.

Research centre for the deep-sea resources, use of national currency

Head of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping spoke about China's plans to create an international centre for the study of deep-sea resources, a Chinese centre for cooperation of BRICS special economic zones and to build a BRICS cooperation network in digital ecosystems.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited the countries of the association to join the initiative that India had previously put forward — the “green loan.”

During the dialogue, the heads of state repeatedly noted their readiness to develop trade in national currencies and called for the development of the New Development Bank (NDB). NDB Head Dilma Rousseff, in turn, recalled that, according to the 2022-2026 strategy, 30% of financing should be made in the currencies of BRICS participants.

“To date, we have used 28.3%, that is, we are almost reaching the goal,” she stressed.