According to Indian sources, the second Summit will carry forward the agenda discussed at the last Summit and the group will try to define their cooperation towards specific and concrete ties in agriculture, energy and science and technology apart from the climate change. Already discussions have been held on cooperation in agriculture and a plan of action has been worked out. The basic thrust is that it has to be ensured that all the four countries can benefit maximum from this cooperation. The declaration issued after the meeting of the agricultural ministers in Moscow in the last week of March this year identified four areas which include establishing the information exchange system, sharing experience on agriculture and food stock, reducing impact of climate change on agriculture and developing agricultural technology and innovation. The next BRIC agricultural ministers meeting is scheduled in 2011.
There is a talk on the possibility of the expansion of BRIC group by inducting Mexico and South Africa but the indications available from the foreign ministry sources here suggest that this issue is not getting priority attention right now. The four member group is yet to take concrete steps on institutionalising their cooperation mechanism and it will take some more time before the group can talk of expansion by including new member countries.
Right now, the focus is on defining their cooperation toward specific and concrete lines in agriculture and energy and also to set up a BRIC Business Forum for facilitating investments within group member countries. At the bilateral level, there are intensive investment activities between some of the member countries. For instance, China has extensive relations with Brazil and India also is one of the biggest trade partners of China. But still the Summit will look into increased possibilities of cooperation in trade and investment. The Brasilia summit will be an opportunity to advance efforts to establish an institutional mechanism for coordination among the four governments.
According to Brazilian foreign ministry sources, “BRIC is still a group without much consolidation, so it is good to have a perception of each country to make a satisfactory meeting for all. It is necessary to remember that BRIC is not a negotiating group, but a convergence group of four large countries of great importance and with increasing participation in several aspects of international relationsâ€
As the Brazilian assistant secretary general for political affairs in the foreign ministry explained to the Indian officials, to better understand the importance of the group, an assessment of the global economy in the past eight years is needed and such an assessment will reveal that it was the BRIC countries that had contributed toward half of the global growth during that period. According to this official Roberto Jaguaribe, based on BRIC's birth against the financial backdrop, it is natural that the economic-financial theme is to dominate the summit as it did at the Yekaterinburg summit last June. He said that there would be many more issues to explore beyond the existing BRIC coordination among finance ministers and central bank governors.
India will also take advantage of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) summit to be held in Brasilia along with the BRIC summit by expanding the areas of collaboration with Brazil in different areas of the economy. With Brazil launching a US$ 878 billion programme to upgrade the country's infrastructure, Indian companies are exploring the possibility of getting a good share of this huge contracts for the supply of equipment, machines and materials. The Indian business delegation led by FICCI President Rajan Mittal will participate in the discussions with the Brazilian industry leaders and the Government to explore the possibilities of collaboration in a large number of areas. Issues relating to investment opportunities, connectivity, agri business and financial markets will top the agenda during discussions and the Indian industry is very optimistic about giving a big push to their business operations in the Brazilian market. (IPA Service)
INDIA FOR CONSOLIDATION OF “BRIC†GROUP
AGRICULTURE, ENERGY MAIN FOCUS AREAS
Special Correspondent - 2010-04-13 12:58
NEW DELHI: Indian Government expects concrete discussions at the coming BRIC Summit in Brasilia on April 16 which will be the second one following the first summit held in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in June 2009. This BRIC group Brazil, Russia, India and China have yet to achieve the process of consolidation taking advantage of their economic strength in the post global financial crisis period and the second Summit will offer the opportunity to take a close look at the global economy after the crisis and how these four countries can play more meaningful role by pooling their huge resources in bringing back the global economy into growth path.