On December 10, 2024, a meeting of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Committee on International Cooperation was held on the topic "BRICS development - new opportunities for Russian Industrialists."
In his welcoming speech to the participants of the meeting, Alexander Shokhin, President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, noted that the strategic business priorities largely coincided with the agenda of the Russian BRICS presidency in 2024 and were reflected in the key decisions of the Kazan summit of this association.
He drew attention to the need to address several issues that could be the subject of an upcoming discussion and be on the agenda of the next meetings of the Committee on International Cooperation. "First, we should strive to synchronize the business agendas of various leading global platforms, such as BRICS, SCO, the Business Twenty, and the organizations of the United Nations system. Such synchronization will help both to increase the efficiency of our joint work, as well as to find new approaches and identify missing competencies.
Secondly, it is important to achieve a breakthrough in addressing the main concerns of business – these issues are largely on the committee's agenda today - cross-border payments and settlements, interbank cooperation, expanding the use of national currencies in mutual trade, as well as technical regulation, insurance, logistics, and personnel training," said Alexander Shokhin.
The participants of the meeting discussed the role of BRICS in foreign economic activity in the new economic realities. Pavel Knyazev, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry and Russia's Representative to the BRICS, Elena Danilova, Deputy Director of the Integration Development Department of the Eurasian Economic Commission, Oleg Shutenko, Chairman of the Intersectoral Subcommittee on Support of Foreign Economic Projects of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Committee on International Cooperation, Chairman of the Board of Novostal-M LLC, Chairman of the Russian-The Thai Business Council Ivan Demchenko.
During the meeting, the participants discussed the formation of a stable BRICS financial system, modern intermodal logistics solutions as the basis for the sustainability of supply chains, and personnel training for foreign economic activity. There was a discussion on expanding the possibilities of BRICS sectoral cooperation, including in the field of technical regulation and standardization.
Anton Shalaev, Head of the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology, spoke about the prospects for common standards in the BRICS member countries. "We are talking about joint developments, joint technologies in the field of standards, primarily, of course, in the interests of domestic industry and domestic business. Russia's BRICS presidency this year has provided us with additional opportunities to develop cooperation and closer cooperation," Anton Shalaev said, adding that the dialogue on the commonality of BRICS technical regulation has been underway since 2016, and the meeting of the heads of national standardization and metrology authorities of the BRICS countries was first held in September 2024 as part of the Russian Energy Week.
"Digital Transformation in the BRICS space – from theory to practice" was the topic of a report by Vitaly Anikin, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Digital Economy and Innovation of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Committee on International Cooperation, Chairman of the Working Group on Standardization in the Field of Information Technology at the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Coordinating Council on Digitalization, Director of Digital Transformation at Renova Holding Rus LLC. "We are planning a proposal to create a project office that will bring together representatives of the IT industry, industrial enterprises, the government, and regulators of the BRICS countries on the principle of a consortium. When forming a project office, it is necessary to use the existing experience in creating industrial competence centers," said Vitaly Anikin.
Andrey Lotsmanov, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Committee on Technical Regulation, Chairman of the Council for Technical Regulation and Standardization under the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, stressed the importance of goods meeting certain standards. "Standards for digital technologies have been developed for many years, but the processes of standardization and development of digital technologies followed parallel courses, because we mainly bought foreign software. Today is the moment when we need to develop our own programs. It is impossible to develop them without standards. Today, 36 industrial competence centers have been created, with which we work closely," said Andrey Lotsmanov, adding that all regulatory procedures for access of goods to the BRICS market should be uploaded to a single platform.
"This idea was supported by Anton Pavlovich Shalaev, head of Rosstandart, discussed at events at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and approved at a meeting of the Federation Council's Economics Committee. This appeal was also supported by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Committee for International Cooperation," said Andrey Lotsmanov.
Following the meeting, a final document will be prepared containing specific proposals for the development of cooperation. It will be sent to federal executive authorities and organizations operating within the framework of the BRICS.
