The Brics Summit has Set a Stage for Business to Move the Needle

When India assumed the Brics chairship this year, many commentators wagered that the grouping’s diversity of interests and geopolitical cross-currents buffeting the world economy would make consensus elusive. Some predicted a thin, lowest-common-denominator text, while others doubted a declaration would emerge at all. The New Delhi Declaration of 12 September has answered that scepticism decisively. It is comprehensive and forward-looking. That such a document could be negotiated is an achievement of India’s diplomatic leadership and deserves to be recognized as such by the business community that stands to gain the most.

What is most striking in the declaration is how seriously it takes the private sector as a partner rather than a bystander. The Business Council’s annual report, with its recommendations on trade, investment and resilient supply chains, and the continuing work of the Women’s Business Alliance on finance, market and technology access for women-led enterprises, point to an institutional architecture that keeps the interests of business at the front and centre of its agenda.

The declaration’s economic core, though, is its treatment of industrialization and value addition. The Partnership on the New Industrial Revolution, Brics Incubator Network, proposed Startup Innovation Fund and sector-specific working groups on photovoltaics and intelligent manufacturing collectively show the focus of Brics on helping member economies climb the technology ladder together rather than compete for its bottom rungs. The most consequential is the explicit agreement that Brics should work towards “broader and more equitable participation of developing countries and emerging markets in higher-value added segments of global manufacturing and production.” Together with the forthcoming Brics Global Value Chain Action Plan for 2026–2030, and its specific mandate to address barriers that emerging markets and developing countries face, it gives industry in the Global South a concrete reference point for its ambitions.

The declaration offers concrete solutions for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that form the backbone of every Brics economy. The guiding principles for credit assessment frameworks for export-oriented MSMEs address the persistent problem of information asymmetry that keeps creditworthy small exporters locked out of formal finance. The inaugural Brics SME Forum in Agra and the Jaipur

Consensus commitment to explore an invoice discounting mechanism translate that principle into instruments which MSMEs can actually use to unlock working capital. The proposed Brics MSME Cooperation Portal complements this effort, giving small enterprises a centralized platform to engage buyers and partners across Brics member states.

The declaration’s focus on practical solutions of finance and technology is particularly welcome. Together, the proposed multilateral guarantees initiative to mobilize private capital across the Global South and India’s offer to host a Brics Risk Lab at Gift City reflect a shared recognition that financial architecture, not merely trade policy, determine whether emerging-market enterprises can compete globally on equal terms. The Brics Payment Task Force’s ongoing development of an interoperable, low-cost cross-border payment system complements these efforts, as it would offer a tangible mechanism to drive down trade transaction costs.

The declaration commits members to science, technology and digital cooperation. This includes the Chennai Consensus of Science, Technology and Innovation Ministers, a proposed

Science and Research Repository, and an emphasis on sovereign but interoperable digital public infrastructure that could all add up to chart a course towards technological self-reliance achieved through cooperation.

Mindful of today’s geopolitical uncertainties, the declaration fittingly draws solemn attention to reforms of global economic governance. Its call to make the Bretton Woods institutions more representative of contemporary economic realities and the reaffirmation of a commitment to a rules-based, non-discriminatory World Trade Organization—with special and differential treatment preserved for developing members—emphasize that institutional reform and market access are two sides of the same coin. Notably, the bloc also spoke in one voice against unilateral tariffs and non-tariff barriers that distort trade. For businesses across the Global South, a multilateral trading system that works as intended—that is, in an open and predictable manner attentive to development needs—is the most valuable global public good on offer.

Declarations are commitments, not outcomes, and Brics’s real test lies in the working groups, action plans and pilot projects that must now follow. But as a piece of collective diplomatic craftsmanship, produced under Indian stewardship against considerable odds, the New Delhi Declaration gives the business community of the Global South something rare: a shared, actionable agenda for equitable growth and the institutional rigour to pursue it.

Note: This article was originally published in Mint