Action Plan for Deepening Industrial Cooperation among BRICS Countries

	BRICS Information Centre

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Hangzhou, July 29, 2017

At present, the world economy is still in a period of profound adjustment after the international financial crisis, and economic growth lacks internal drivers. Industrial sectors, the manufacturing sector and the service sectors related to it in particular, have become key factors in sustaining mid- and long-term economic development. In recent years, the new industrial revolution featuring digitalization, networking and intellectualization is emerging, changing traditional production flows and business models, and giving rise to new industrial forms. To seize the development opportunities brought about by the new industrial revolution, and mindful of the necessity of environmentally sustainable development, deal with accompanying challenges, BRICS countries have all rolled out mid- and long-term development strategies for the manufacturing sector in the past years, such as China's "China Manufacturing 2025", Brazil's industrial development policies and programs, the Russian Federation's National Industrial Branches Development strategies and policies, India's "Make in India" Strategy, South Africa's "National Industrial Policy Framework", which all contain important measures to push forward industrial revolution, the BRICS therefore respects the rights of each member country to adopt policies that is appropriate to their level of development.

This Action Plan is made with the aim to facilitate the implementation of the consensus reached at the 1st Meeting of BRICS Industry Ministers held on October 20, 2015 in Moscow on expanding industrial cooperation in key areas and joint actions, and deepen the mutually beneficial trade, investment, innovative and industrial development based on competitive advantages, and win-win cooperation in industrial fields, particularly manufacturing areas.

To seize development opportunities brought by the new industrial revolution, BRICS countries will take joint actions to fully utilize their advantages of rich natural and human resources, broad domestic markets, great development potentials and wide policy space, and vigorously carry out coordination and match-making in the fields of industrial capacity and policies, and cooperation in such fields as development of new industrial infrastructure, technology development and innovation, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and standards, so as to cope with the challenges caused by the new industrial revolution and disruptive technologies in terms of industrial competition and employment, facilitate the transition and upgrading of traditional industries, expedite the industrialization process of BRICS countries, and upgrade the industrial development level of the BRICS countries.

In this regard, BRICS countries will take, as appropriate, the following actions:

I. Strengthen industrial capacity cooperation

1. Establish industrial capacity cooperation mechanism among BRICS countries to promote the development of industrial capacity cooperation projects in key areas.

2. Under the principle of "complementary advantages, mutual benefits and win-win cooperation", encourage enterprises and relevant organizations to expedite cooperation in key areas such as mining, oil and gas, steel, aluminum, advanced manufacturing, shipbuilding, railway equipment and infrastructure, automobile, pharmacy, metallurgy and aircraft manufacturing, and deepen cooperation in emerging industries such as new generation information technology, biology, medical apparatus and instruments, new energy and new materials, to continuously open up new space for BRICS cooperation and substantiate BRICS cooperation contents.

3. Innovate on and enrich methods and means of industrial cooperation and utilize appropriate approaches, such as industrial investment, engineering construction, technological cooperation and technical assistance, to promote the development of demonstration parks for industrial cooperation, taking into account national conditions and features of different cooperative projects.

4. Fully utilize the existing BRICS bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms, and leverage the platforms of relevant international forums and expositions to coordinate and promote the implementation of cooperation projects. Leverage the New Development Bank to play a key role in the development of industrial infrastructure.

5. Strengthen coordination and match-making and exploit respective advantages to jointly plan and explore international and regional markets.

II. Strengthen the coordination and match-making in the field of industrial policies and development strategies

1. Strengthen exchange and dialogue mechanism of BRICS countries in industrial areas, and explore mutually beneficial and win-win industrial policy coordination mechanism, to improve the policies coordination in a timely and effective manner.

2. Explore coordination and match-making models of industrial development strategies, and promote sharing of best practices and exchanging of experiences.

3. Promote communication activities including forums and seminars to discuss policy measures conducive to the industrial development of BRICS countries for mutual benefits and win-win cooperation, and explore technical, industrial, and commercial cooperation modes in key areas.

III. Promote the cooperation in the development of new industrial infrastructure

1. Deepen the exchanges among institutes and organizations in BRICS countries in the fields of key generic technologies of new industrial infrastructure and reinforce cooperation mechanism.

2. Strengthen cooperation and encourage enterprises and related organizations to carry out extensive and intensive research on innovation and commercialization of key generic technologies of new industrial infrastructure to overcome technological barriers.

3. Strengthen dialogues and information exchange to share experiences regarding the design of new industrial infrastructure and best practices of operation.

IV. Expand cooperation in technological development and innovation.

1. Encourage BRICS countries to hold meetings and forums focused on advanced, high-precision, and cutting-edge technologies to display scientific and technological innovation achievements and discuss their development trends.

2. Encourage enterprises, research institutes and academia in BRICS countries to establish cooperation partnerships, with the aim to overcome key generic technological barriers in industrial key areas.

3. Discuss the creation of mechanisms for technology transfer and diffusion and pool more resources to innovation.

4. Encourage enterprises and relevant organizations to conduct extensive and intensive research on the applications of innovative high-tech industry.

V. Deepen cooperation in the field of SMEs

1. Encourage SMEs to apply new and cost-effective technologies and business models, and increase their awareness to proactively embrace the new industrial revolution.

2. Encourage the establishment of partnerships between SMEs, between SMEs and big companies, and share best practices in the application and development of technologies of new industrial revolution.

3. Discuss supporting policies that are conducive to SMEs financing, and foster an ever-improving financing environment.

4. Encourage SMEs of BRICS countries to participate in expositions and fairs held in BRICS countries, strengthen project match-making and economic and trade exchanges, and promote SMEs to actively integrate into the regional and global value chain.

VI. Strengthen cooperation in the areas of standardization

1. Encourage relevant government departments, standard organizations, enterprises, industries, and business associations to cooperate in standardization activities in emerging industries such as smart manufacturing, additive manufacturing, and robotics, and strengthen information exchange regarding the development of the latest standards.

2. Encourage private sectors and enterprises to participate in relevant dialogues concerning standards of new industrial revolution.

3. Encourage BRICS countries to strengthen communication and cooperation regarding conformity assessment procedure, certification, accreditation and other relevant aspects, and share expertise and experiences in this regard.

4. Discuss joint efforts on training standardization talents and other related work.

VII. Facilitate all-round cooperation with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)

1. Strengthen cooperation with UNIDO in creating a mechanism to serve future editions of the BRICS Ministers of Industry meetings, including the provision of resources to foster projects in key areas for cooperation on industrial capacity among BRICS countries.

2. Strengthen cooperation with UNIDO, through capacity building, technical cooperation and policy consultation in relevant areas, to promote industrial development of BRICS countries.

3. Continue to facilitate the establishment of UNIDO-BRICS Technology Platform and promote technology-driven development through technology transfer and exchange of knowledge, experience, and best practices.

4. Support SMEs in achieving better quality assurance and generic infrastructure excellence through the all-round and strategic cooperation with UNIDO.

5. Explore possibilities of financial assistance of UNIDO in cooperation with development financial institutions including the New Development Bank, to expand cooperation in technological development and innovation applied to businesses among BRICS countries.

Source: Brazilian Ministry of External Relations