Practical Directions for BRICS Development in the Medium Term

The actual handover of the BRICS chairmanship from New Delhi to Beijing will take place in three months, but the contours of the group’s near-term agenda can already be identified with reasonable clarity.

As BRICS expands and diversifies, the focus of discussions is shifting from symbolic gestures to issues of practical economic integration. Experts identify seven areas that are highly likely to shape the forum’s work in the foreseeable future—ranging from cross-border payments to the regulation of artificial intelligence. At the same time, a list of topics is emerging whose relevance will gradually diminish.

Cross-border payments

The first and, perhaps, most pressing priority is ensuring efficient, secure, and affordable cross-border payments. The BRICS initiative on cross-border payments and discussions on greater interoperability among financial systems offer a more realistic path forward than the idea of a single unit of account. National currencies should be used where trading structures and liquidity make such settlements commercially viable.

Effective Economic Integration

The second area is the creation of a digital gateway for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in BRICS countries. This involves a proven digital platform that connects companies with banks, chambers of commerce, logistics providers, certification bodies, and potential business partners. Entrepreneurs should be able to connect to the platform and get answers to basic questions: who can buy their product, what standards it must meet, how payment will be processed, which bank can finance the transaction, and how the goods will be transported. This is what practical economic integration looks like—not in declarations, but in functioning services.

Modernization of the........

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