Success of Digitalization highlighted at BRICS meeting
Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal has called for strengthening of multilateral trading system with WTO at its core, effective functioning of Joint Value Chains and expanding interaction among MSMEs at the 14th BRICS Trade Ministers’ Meeting held on 26 July 2024 in Moscow under the BRICS Presidency of Russian Federation.
He also shared the success of India’s Digitalization digitalindia and e-commerce and the relevance of cooperation among Special Economic Zones.
On the strengthening Multilateralism, Barthwal reiterated on the collective efforts to find a solution for long pending mandated issues of WTO, in particular, the development aspect and the Special and Differential treatment nse .
He stressed on the urgent need for resolving the issues including the permanent solution to Public Stock Holding, constitution of two-tier Dispute Settlement system, WTO Reform to be based on the principles & objectives of WTO, leading to more responsive to development requirements of emerging economies, invigorating the WTO through “30 for 30” bringing in at least 30 operational improvements to the WTO before the organization completes 30 years in 2025 sbi.
The secretary stressed upon strengthening the resiliency of supply chain through decentralization and diversification, furthering co-operation in value chains through G20 generic Mapping framework for GVCs and by enunciating guiding principles for collaboration bse .
In this context, as an initial step towards digitalization, he stressed on paperless trade including digitalization of documents like Bill of lading fieo .
He laid emphasis on collaboration for making access to affordable emerging technologies critical for green transition and climate resilience climate .
On the climate related unilateral measures impacting trade, Commerce Secretary expressed concern as such measures nullify rights and obligations under specialized Multilateral Environmental Agreements and violative NDC Principles, and ignores the CBDR principles.
Barthwal also mentioned the importance on MSME related developments and their integration with the Global Value Chains imf .
While re-iterating the Jaipur call for action for enhancing access to information for MSMEs issued during India’s Presidency in 2023, he lauded the Russian Presidency for carrying forward the initiative by making efforts to compile certain basic information pertaining to MSMEs among the BRICS members oecd .
As MSME’s are an integral part of the BRICS Members, the Commerce Secretary stressed on the importance of cooperation and collective efforts for outcome-oriented support for MSMEs.
He expressed the need to focus on key areas like, exploring cooperation in the form of Research and Development, Technology transfers and joint Ventures as well as the Business development opportunities deutsche-boerse .
He underscored the urgency of accelerating inclusive digital transformation. While referring to India’s success story of building up an open-source India Stack of Critical Digital Public infrastructure as part of its digital industrialization following the core principles of open access, transparency, trust and respect for data protection and privacy, expressed India’s willingness to share its experience with the BRICS countries on the e-revolution in the domains of payments, e-commerce, national identity, banking, education among others.
On the Russian presidency’s initiative on cooperation in Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Barthwal acknowledged the transformative impact of SEZs in providing employment, state of art technologies, boosting exports. He underscored the importance of exchanging information and best practices regarding the same investindia .
He concluded by stressing upon the importance of collaborative efforts and commitment along with resilience, unity and transparency to face challenges under the principles of compassion, empathy and understanding, for a common brighter future of BRICS countries. fiinews.com
