Onlykashmir.in News Desk
The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises will host the first-ever BRICS MSME Forum along with the Third SME Working Group Meeting in Agra on Friday, under the theme Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability. The event brings India to the centre of global conversations about the future of small and medium enterprises at a time when the BRICS grouping has expanded significantly and now encompasses a substantial share of the world’s economic activity.
The forum will bring together policymakers, industry leaders, entrepreneurs and key stakeholders from the full roster of BRICS member and partner countries, creating a platform for structured dialogue on the challenges and opportunities facing MSME ecosystems globally. The participating countries include Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the UAE, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, representing a combined population and economic footprint that dwarfs that of any other multilateral grouping in operation today.
The themes of the forum, resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability, are not rhetorical choices. They reflect the genuine pressures that small businesses in emerging and developing economies face in a global environment shaped by supply chain disruptions, digital transformation, the energy transition and intensifying competition from large-scale industrial players.
For India, hosting the inaugural BRICS MSME Forum represents both a diplomatic achievement and a policy opportunity. India’s MSME sector is one of the largest in the world, employing over 110 million people and contributing significantly to the country’s exports and GDP. The forum allows India to position its own MSME development experience, including initiatives like Udyam registration, MSME clusters and credit guarantee schemes, as potential models for peer countries.
Agra, as the chosen host city, brings together the symbolic and the functional. As a globally recognised tourism destination, it offers BRICS delegates an immersive encounter with India’s cultural heritage alongside the forum’s substantive agenda.
