The President and Chairman of Center-Invest Bank, Dr. Vasily Vysokov, presented the bank’s experience at the summit of BRICS countries. Delivering a paper entitled “BRICS Cooperation for Sustainability”, Dr. Vysokov spoke about the results achieved by the bank through the application of sustainable development principles for the benefit of southern Russia’s population and businesses.
The summit participants were very interested in our unique experience of energy-efficiency lending in conditions of cheap energy resources (relative to world prices) and tariffs set using unprofitable methods. Center-Invest Bank has successfully applied an integrated approach, based on technical, financial and social engineering, to overcome the challenges posed by these conditions.
The bank’s participation in the forum was the latest phase in our programme “Partnership for Modernization”, with our specific aim being to assist SMEs from southern Russia to gain access to the markets of BRICS countries. During the forum, Center-Invest Bank and partner banks from Brazil, South Africa, China and India discussed opportunities to finance their SME customers’ international trade transactions with loans issued in national currencies, as this would reduce currency risk exposure.
It was proposed that cooperation between the BRICS countries be expanded by establishing close trading links and contacts between their respective SME sectors; these companies will shape the future of the global economy, with Internet technologies playing an important role.
To promote partnerships between Don region businesses and foreign companies, Center-Invest Bank has updated the “Partner” Database, an online resource hosted by the portal MBDON.RU. Any company can use this database to find and select a partner from among 50,000 SMEs in the Rostov region. Since the start of the year, more than 35,000 users have accessed the site.
One of Center-Invest Bank’s objectives is to help SMEs in southern Russia operate at an international level. To this end, the catalogue of Don companies has been made available in German, English and French, and work is underway on Chinese and Portuguese versions. All of the participants in the BRICS business forum considered the opportunity to gain direct access to thousands of companies via the Internet to be of real value.
Today, the BRICS countries account for 40% of the world’s population and 18% of global GDP. In the last ten years, trade between these countries has grown by an average of 28% annually.
The forum confirmed that not only do BRICS countries have growth potential, but they also have experience of addressing sustainable development challenges. Business people both from southern Russia and from the other BRICS nations would benefit from sharing this experience. In recognition of this, the summit participants responded positively to the proposal that the next BRICS business forum be held in Rostov-on-Don.