OREANDA-NEWS. St. Petersburg played host to a G20 summit on September 5-6, during which Russian President Vladimir Putin met with G20 businessmen and trade union members.

CCI of Russia President Sergey Katyrin participated in the meeting of B20 summit delegates in the course of the G20 summit and addressed a session of plenipotentiary representatives of the BRICS business community.

In addition, Sergey Katyrin met with International Chamber of Commerce Secretary-General Jean-Guy Carrier to discuss cooperation between the CCI of Russia and the ICC in a number of areas, among them international commercial arbitration.

In March 2013 Sergey Katyrin headed the Russian part of the BRICS Business Council the composition of which was approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The first meeting was held in Johannesburg on August 19-20. In the opinion of Sergey Katyrin, it was an important step towards strengthening business cooperation between BRICS countries. Significant progress was made in the solution of a number of organizational and practical issues in the Council's operations and concrete proposals were made to be implemented shortly. All the sessions regarding business cooperation in various sectors were held on a high level, the Chamber President said.

In the near future the Business Council will foster current projects and search for and support new multilateral investment undertakings using the floors of major world forums and exhibitions. The system of multilateral investment and multilateral business projects assisted by BRICS is a tangible mechanism of strengthening trade and economic relations between group members, Sergey Katyrin affirmed.

All the BRICS countries are active members of the G20. The BRICS Business Council is bound to create new opportunities for economic cooperation between entrepreneurs of BRICS and G20 states. The B20 experience and recommendations will be taken into consideration in the activity of the BRICS Business Council. They are in demand, primarily, in financial regulation, investment and infrastructural sectors. B20 recommendations may also help expose weak points impeding trade, economic and investment development, Sergey Katyrin said.

The Chamber President explained the idea to set up the BRICS Development Bank with the imperfection of the existent distribution of quotas and votes in the IMF. Sergey Katyrin expressed hope that the G20 would be able to find a reasonable solution, which would meet the interests of all the group members and build up their role in the global economic system.