FORTALEZA, July 15 (RIA Novosti) - The initiatives of the BRICS countries are paving the way for a new global financial architecture, the head of Russia’s BRICS Business Council Sergei Katyrin told RIA Novosti on the sidelines of the BRICS Business Forum in Fortaleza, Brazil.
"In my opinion, this is the start of creating a new global financial architecture," Katyrin said, speaking about the agreements reached on the establishment of the New Development Bank and the Contingency Reserve Arrangement (CRA).
"We talked about finance in Durban last year, this was one of the key topics. And in a little while the establishment of the bank is almost accomplished," he said, adding that the agreements on World Bank reorganization were reached with the US back to 2010 but have not been ratified yet.
"We would like to work with common standards [within BRICS], and we touched upon this at the discussion earlier today," Katyrin, who is also the President of Russia's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said.
"We would like to have a common understanding of business climate, to have equal access to investment and similar conditions for investors. If we come to realize that we have common rules of the game, common standards, then we can talk about the joint BRICS market," he stressed, adding that several divergent positions remain.
He also noted that a number of difficulties is hindering closer cooperation among the BRICS members, including visa regime, administrative barriers, insufficiency of financial institutions helping businesses work together.
However the BRICS Business Council set up last year with the goal of strengthening and promoting economic, trade, business and investment ties among the business communities of the five BRICS countries is working to lift the barriers.
The Council will present an annual report to the BRICS heads of states, making its recommendations on Tuesday, July 15.
