BRICS discusses ways to increase cooperation in services, MSME

Senior officials of BRICS grouping today discussed ways to enhance cooperation and trade facilitation in the services sector. These issues, among others, were deliberated upon during the second meeting of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) round table and the seminar on services in Agra. The BRICS is a grouping consisting of five countries - Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa. "The deliberations were centred around the regulatory framework and institutional structures of MSMEs; the role of MSMEs in innovation, technology transfer and international projects; integration of MSMEs in the global value chains and a possible portal for BRICS MSMEs," the commerce ministry said in a statement. The BRICS delegations decided that they would take the discussions and possible cooperation on MSMEs forward, it said. "In the second BRICS seminar on services, the issues that were discussed were cooperation on the services statistics in the BRICS region and possible areas of cooperation on trade facilitation," it added. Dammu Ravi, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce was the moderator. India also provided a brief on the first BRICS trade fair to be held in October.