Panaji [India], Oct. 13 : A meeting of BRICS Sherpas to discuss and finalise text of the Goa Declaration and the Goa Action Plan for adoption by the leaders at the Summit took place in Goa on Thursday and would continue their meeting tomorrow as well, said sources.
The meeting is chaired by Ministry of External Affairs Ministry Secretary for Economic Relation Amar Sinha, who is the Indian sherpa.
The Sherpas discussed several important subjects, including reform of the United Nations and International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organisation (WTO) and G20 issues, progress on the sustainable development goals, etc, said sources.
A particular focus was on intra-BRICS trade, finance and industrial cooperation as well as BRICS cooperation in education, health, agriculture, science, energy and disaster management, whereas terrorism being a common challenge faced by all BRICS counties was an important part of the discussion.
The theme of India's BRICS Chairmanship is 'Building Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions' and has been marked by several new initiatives, enhanced people to people contacts and broad basing BRICS Sectoral cooperation.
The focus during India's BRICS Chairmanship will be on enhanced people-to-people (P2P) contacts of BRICS member states, especially youth.
In this context, India has planned activities like U-17 Football Tournament, Youth Summit, Young Diplomats' Forum, Film Festival etc.
The Eighth BRICS Summit will be held in Goa on October 15-16, where leaders from all member countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - will participate.
Divulging detail of the BRICS programme in New Delhi during a media briefing on October 7, Sinha said, "Basically, it is a two-day event on October 15 and 16, and normally, the BRICS Summit starts with an informal dinner, which will be held on October 15 in Goa.
At that event, we are also trying to bring all the five captains of the participating teams - because there would be also the final of the Under 17 football tournament - to meet the leaders and, perhaps, to have a photo-op with them." "The main summit day is October 16, which will start with a group photo, and then, a restricted meeting of the five BRICS' leaders, followed by a working luncheon.
Thereafter, the leaders will meet the business council and accept the report from them. Besides, there will be for the first time a briefing by New Development Bank (NDB) president K.V. Kamath, because they have completed a year of functioning and they have issued the first loans, so they would be coming and presenting a report," said Secretary (E.R.).
"Later, we will have a plenary, where the Prime Minister will address the media in the presence of all the leaders, and there will be the leaders' statement at the end," he said.
Sinha further said in the evening of October 16, there first would be a BIMSTEC meeting that the Prime Minister would chair, followed by a meeting of BRICS and BIMSTEC leaders.
And the final event would be a BRICS-BIMSTEC outreach dinner, he added. BRICS brings together five major emerging economies Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa comprising 43 percent of the world population, 30 percent of the world GDP and 17 percent share in the world trade.
Source: ANI
