Largest-ever BRICS Business Forum highly anticipated

Jiang Zengwei, director of the 2017 BRICS Business Forum organizing committee, meets the media on Saturday, September 2, 2017 in Xiamen. [Photo: China Plus/Zhang Xu]

Final touches are being made to the 9th BRICS Summit which opens in the coastal resort of Xiamen on September the 4th.

As holders of the rotating presidency this year, China will be welcoming delegates from the five major emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - to review progress and to discuss greater cooperation in the future.

Ahead of the summit, however, comes the largest ever BRICS Business Forum. 

Jiang Zengwei, director of the organizing committee, says the forum participants not only come from BRICS countries.

"1,069 business leaders will attend the forum with the figure equally split between China and foreign countries is beyond our expectation. About 630 enterprises from around the world will attend the forum including 79 Fortune Global 500 firms as well as enterprises from developed countries such as the US, UK, Germany and Australia."

The enterprises, 260 of which are from foreign countries, cover not only traditional areas of infrastructure, manufacture, agriculture, but also emerging industries such as biology, internet, and information technology, Jiang added.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony of the forum and deliver a keynote speech, reviewing the progress that BRICS countries have made in the past ten years and looking ahead to the future. Leaders of some of the other countries are also expected to speak.

During the forum, representatives will mainly discuss topics relating to trade and investment, financial cooperation and development, connectivity, and the concept of a sustainable 'blue economy.' Jiang says he hopes that the upcoming forum will enhance cooperation between BRICS enterprises.

"The BRICS countries lead the developing countries on trade and investment. The BRICS GDP contributes over 50% of the global economic growth. The BRICS countries have 12% of trade volume and 16% foreign investment volume in the world. I hope the forum will enhance cooperation between BRICS enterprises and expand business capacity or marketing development of BRICS enterprises," said Jiang.

The largest ever BRICS Business Forum and the BRICS summit have attracted about 3,000 reporters from 80 countries, according to Yu Dunhai, director of the BRICS Xiamen Summit media center which opened for business on Saturday. Yu says the media center is ready to provide high quality service for all involved.

"We have trained over 300 young and diligent volunteers to work at the media center, and most of them come from local universities like Xiamen University and Jimei University. We are also trying to organise a green summit, for example, we have rented all 700 work stations and chairs in the media center from the G20 Hangzhou summit held last September."

Besides the services available at the media center, Yu says they've also arranged 13 tours in Xiamen for reporters to help them further understand Chinese culture.