From March to June 2022, the BRICS Business Council successfully held a series of cross-border matchmaking activities for “BRICS +” enterprises in hybrid format through promotion and negotiation. Special sessions was organized for different countries including Brazil, South Africa, Argentina, Peru, Chile and Vietnam, and those for different industries including anti-pandemic supplies, leading SMEs specialized in niche sectors, digital ecosystem, wine tasting and cross-border e-commerce, the activities attracted more than 1,300 enterprises from over 20 emerging markets and developing countries in Asia, South America, Africa and Europe. Over 500 preliminary cooperation intentions were reached, involving an amount of more than CNY 4.3 billion.

The “China-Vietnam Industrial Park Investment Matchmaking Conference” that took place in early May witnessed the online participation of multiple industrial parks from Vietnam and more than one hundred Chinese-funded enterprises. Based on the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the organizers, composed of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Vietnam, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Klynveld Peat Matwick Goerdeler(KPMG Vietnam) and relevant Vietnamese industrial parks, introduced the impacts of China-Vietnam cooperation on production capacity, the investment environment and investment attraction policies in Vietnam and ICBC’s featured financial services. Interactive matchmaking and communication were also conducted among representatives from participating enterprises and the organizers.

The “Sino-Peruvian Agricultural Products Matchmaker” held in late May created a valuable cross-border bridge for agricultural export companies in Peru, and thus unleashed strong appeal to many enterprises from Peru and China. Most of the participating enterprises established cooperative relationships. ICBC Peru also made good use of this opportunity to offer comprehensive financial services to the co-organizer ADEX (Asociacion de Exportadores) and local leading agricultural enterprises, in a bid to contribute to the sustainable development of the economic and trade exchanges between China and Peru.

All the above-mentioned activities are held upon “ICBC Business Matchmaker”, a platform developed independently by ICBC. “This easy-to-operate platform can provide us with ‘one-stop’ comprehensive financial services such as international financing, settlement, cash management etc., which well meets our actual needs of foreign trade,” A business manager of a Hunan-based grain and oil group who participated in the special session for Africa said, “The organizer provided professional interpreters for each online negotiation, which helped solve the communication problems for enterprises and created good opportunities for cooperation between both sides.”

“The fact that the Chinese market emphasizes cooperative dialogues, mutual benefits and win-win results brings important development opportunities for Brazilian companies and plays a critical role in the stable economic development of Brazil and even the world.” The general manager of a trade company from São Paulo who attended the special session for Brazil said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua News Agency after the event, “The exchanges and cooperation between China and Brazil under the BRICS framework are of great significance. China-Brazil trade cooperation has promoted the common progress of both sides in infrastructure, technology and energy, among many other key fields, and also demonstrated strong resilience and development potential amid the shock of the pandemic.”

The cross-border matchmaking activities for “BRICS+” enterprises featured a wide scope of coverage, fruitful cooperation achievements and high evaluation from all parties concerned. With these activities, the scope of “BRICS+” cooperative countries has been expanded, the information strengths of business enterprises brought into play, and new momentum injected into win-win trade cooperation. Multiple topics were combined at the special sessions for different countries and industries, such as the economic and trade cooperation among RCEP countries, the “Belt and Road Initiative”, “South-South Cooperation”, the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Argentina, the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, joint fight against the pandemic, the stabilization of foreign trade and foreign investment and sustainable development, which highlighted and extended the connotation of BRICS economic cooperation. ICBC will form a long-term mechanism of cross-border cooperation for “BRICS+” enterprises by continuing its experience in hosting such activities, and will build the relevant platform into an important link to serve the industrial and supply chains of “BRICS+” Business. Moreover, it will push forward deeper and further business cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries and earnestly implement BRICS Business Council’s work objective, “Foster High-quality BRICS Partnership, Usher in a New Era for Global Development”.

 (Source: BRICS Business Council)