Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

Oct 18, 2024

During his speech at the BRICS Business Forum, President Vladimir Putin, in particular, praised bilateral cooperation between BRICS members and the group’s growing global clout.

Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed participants of the BRICS Business Forum ahead of the 2024 BRICS Summit in Kazan, due to open early next week.

Here are Putin’s main statements at the forum:

Companies from BRICS countries are successfully developing mutual cooperation, implementing key projects in various sectors, such as industry, energy, transport, infrastructure, agriculture, and digital economy.

The current forum brings together businessmen from all BRICS member states.

Russia, as acting BRICS chair, is seeking to help integrate new BRICS members into all cooperation mechanisms.

It’s emblematic that the BRICS Summit in Kazan is preceded by the group’s Business Forum.

One should emphasize the importance of close economic partnership between BRICS countries to advance trade and investment to deepen mutual cooperation, which brings tangible results. It helps in practice to improve the prosperity and living standards of rank-and-file citizens of BRICS nations.

The combined gross domestic product (GDP) of BRICS countries is more than $60 trillion, exceeding the GDP of G7 members.

Companies from BRICS countries dominate many key global markets related to energy, metals, and food.

BRICS is already playing a prominent role in the global economy, and this role will increase in the future. BRICS countries, in fact, remain drivers of global economic growth. And it is BRICS that will generate the main GDP growth in the near future.

Relevant development platforms are emerging within BRICS, among them communication channels, financial systems, payment instruments, and, of course, mechanisms for sustainable long-term investment. In other words, the economic growth of BRICS members will depend less and less on external influence and interference.

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BRICS New Development Bank has a special role to play in strengthening financial cooperation between BRICS members. The bank represents a real alternative to a great number of Western financial mechanisms, and we will continue to develop it. The bank should become one of the key investors in long-term and major technological infrastructure projects within BRICS.

One of the key issues of strengthening business partnership within BRICS is to enhance transportation connectivity and to create new mechanisms for businesses freight routes and corridors.

In the Business Council, we have established a separate subgroup on logistics, and I would like to thank members of the Business Council and the businessmen for supporting the concept of a permanent logistics platform.

Russia is quickly redirecting its transport flows to reliable foreign partners. Our flagship projects include the Northern Sea Route and the North-South Corridor, continental arteries that are intended to provide short and economically efficient trade routes and connect large industrial, agricultural, as well as energy and power hubs to consumer markets.

We are implementing a large-scale plan to develop the Northern Sea Route, building up our icebreaker fleet, including nuclear-powered vessels. We are constructing new fuel terminals as well as navigation safety centers and other coastal infrastructure.

We are closely cooperating with our BRICS partners in the field of innovation, digital economy, and artificial intelligence technology.

Russia is open for mutually beneficial business cooperation. Our joint efforts should be mainly focused on the development and strengthening of our own platforms that add to economic growth. I am talking about technological solutions, financial and investment mechanisms, as well as broader logistics, and so on. I am confident that the implementation of BRICS’ potential, based in particular on its huge population and vast resources, will bring utmost benefit to our countries, businesses, and all of our citizens.

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