The Industry Ministers of the Brics alignment countries reaffirmed on Wednesday their commitment to the Brics Economic Partnership Strategy, with increased stress on strengthening business-to-business contacts between their countries. The Brics countries are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

They also agreed to create a Brics Partnership on the New Industrial Revolution (acronymed as PartNIR). This is intended to reinforce cooperation between the five countries in the areas of innovation, investment, industrialisation and inclusion.

Within this partnership, and to support manufacturing in the Brics countries, an advisory group on the new industrial revolution is to be set up. This will be composed of policy makers and experts from all five countries and will establish terms of reference and a work plan.

The Ministers also agreed, with regard to the New Industrial Revolution, to identify key common focus areas. These will include, but not be restricted to, New Industrial Revolution policy coordination; cooperation opportunities regarding advanced technical skills and training; the sharing of digitisation best practices and information; capacity building; inclusive and equitable growth projects; and working with stakeholders to improve human and financial resources synergies.

It was also agreed that the advisory group would closely work with the Brics Business Council. This was to attract private sector participation in the working groups of the Brics Business Council. In turn, this was aimed at developing industrial cooperation in a large range of manufacturing and other industrial sectors, to mutual benefit.

The advisory group would also work on the execution of current cooperation projects. This would be in line with the Brics Economic Cooperation Strategy. Full use would be made of the experiences of the five countries.

Overall, the Ministers agreed that, in the words of their official declaration, “[t]he global economy is demonstrating positive signs of economic recovery with output growth accelerating to nearly 4%. … Although the outlook for global growth does appear brighter, certain risks remain. … [E]merging markets and developing economies have become increasingly important in the global economy, making progressively higher contributions to global output, trade and investment.”

This was the third Brics Industry Ministers’ Meeting. It was held in the Magaliesburg, to the west of the South African capital, Pretoria.