SCIO briefing on BRICS economic and financial cooperation

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Speakers:
Zhou Qiangwu, director general of the International Economics and Finance Institute of the Ministry of Finance;
Ye Fujing, director general of the Institute for International Economic Research of the National Development and Reform Commission

Chairperson:
Hu Kaihong, spokesperson of the State Council Information Office

Date:
August 31, 2017

CGTN:

At the 7th Meeting of the BRICS Trade Ministers held in August, all parties reached an agreement to promote the development of e-commerce. I wonder if there will be any kind of agreement to be reached in the field of e-commerce at the forthcoming summit. What further action is to be taken in this regard?

Ye Fujing;

The 7th Meeting of the BRICS Trade Ministers in August approved a series of documents involving the BRICS' service trade cooperation roadmap, e-commerce cooperation initiative, and investment facilitation cooperation outline. We are looking forward to the forthcoming summit to discuss specific ways of implementation, and specific measures of cooperationat the next stage.

Zhou Qiangwu:

Here I would like to add one more point. At the just concluded Meeting of the BRICS Trade Ministers, the five member states completed eight major achievements through their concerted efforts. You might have noticed that these involved issues concerning the building of the BRICS countries' electronic port networks and investment facilitation as well as economic and technological cooperation. These eight achievements will be highlighted at the forthcoming BRICS summit.

I particularly value the building of the BRICS demonstration electronic port network you have mentioned. In this respect, China may already be at the forefront in some areas. We will work together with other BRICS members to make a positive contribution to this construction.

At the same time, I would like to stress two other points I just mentioned, namely, the BRICS countries' investment facilitation and economic and technological cooperation. In my opinion, they will become two wheels guiding BRICS economic and trade cooperation to advance further. Thank you.

TASS:

Just now, you mentioned that the wide use of yuan is welcomed. Do you mean investments made by Russian companies in China? Are Chinese investors who do businesses in Russia willing to use the ruble to make deals with Russian companies?

Ye Fujing:

Since the implementation of China's reform and opening up policy, China-Russia economic and trade ties has developed rapidly.

Monetary cooperation is a vital component. Many companies and investors in China and Russia are using each other's currencies, and the governments of both sides have show great support to them in this regard.

Therefore, we should not only internationalize China's official currency, but also promote the internationalization of Russian currency, which is beneficial for the bilateral cooperation.

Hu Kaihong:

We'll wind up today's briefing. Thanks for our two experts who have joined us and thanks to you all.

By Li Xiaohua, GuoXiaohong, Chen Xia, Zhang Lulu, Wu Jin, He Shan, Zhou Jing, Li Jingrong, Ma Yujia, Zhang Rui, Xu Lin, Wang Wei, Li Huiru