BRICS Business Forum to meet tomorrow on summit sidelines

Over 1,000 business leaders including those from India and other emerging economies are expected to attend the eigth BRICS Business Forum tomorrow here on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony of the forum and deliver a keynote speech.

“The forum is expected to gather a record 1,200 attendees, including representatives from nearly 80 Fortune 500 multinationals,” Jiang Zengwei, head of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), said at a press conference.

Over 600 enterprises to be present at the forum cover both traditional industries such as energy and infrastructure and emerging industries such as biology and the Internet, Jiang said.

The forum, themed ‘BRICS: Stronger Partnership for a Brighter Future’, will focus on trade and investment, financial cooperation, connectivity, and the blue economy.

Jiang expects the forum to bolster the business circle’s confidence in expanding cooperation and strengthen their communication to provide valuable advice for policy making. The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will meet for the three-day ninth BRICS Summit, scheduled for September 3-5 in Xiamen, southeastern Chinese city in Fujian province.

An important side-event of the BRICS Summit, the forum was launched in 2010 and is hosted by the country holding the rotating presidency of BRICS. It serves as a platform for business leaders to discuss issues of common concern, build consensus and raise policy suggestions.

Leaders from five other emerging markets and developing countries — Egypt, Guinea, Mexico, Tajikistan and Thailand — will attend the Dialogue of Emerging Markets and Developing Countries during the summit and engage in dialogue with the BRICS members, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.