National Coordination Center for Developing Economic Cooperation with the Countries of Asia-Pacific Region (NCC APR) was a partner of the international conference “G20 and BRICS – new global governance institutions”

The conference opened with a welcome statement by the RANEPA Rector Vladimir Mau.
Russian G20 Sherpa, Deputy Head of the Presidential Experts’ Directorate Svetlana Lukash in her keynote statement shared with the participants Russia`s priorities in the G20 and vision of further evolution of this institution. Svetlana Lukash emphasized an importance of inclusion of innovation development in the G20 agenda under the Chinese presidency in 2016 and expressed hope that these issues will be reflected in the future presidencies priorities.
According to Russia's BRICS Sous-Sherpa Pavel Knyazev, the BRICS countries during a period less than 10 years were able to establish a sustainable basis for economic cooperation and their own financial institutions and mechanisms as the New Development Bank (NDB) and Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) aimed at address the needs of the BRICS member countries, particularly in infrastructure development financing.
John Kirton, Co-director of the BRICS Research Group, Co-director of the G20 Research Group, Director of the G8 Research Group of Munk School of Global Affairs of University of Toronto told the participants about the G20 contribution to overcoming economic crisis, G20 potential and objectives to promote strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive global economic growth.
According to Mike Callagan, Nonresident Fellow of Lowy Institute for International Policy, the effectiveness of the G20 work depends on a common recognition of problems and solutions as well as its capabilities to influence business environment in the member countries promoting business-led growth.
Guo Shuyong, Dean of the School of International Relations and Public Affairs (SIRPA) of Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) shared with the participants his vision on unlocking new growth drivers, namely innovation, new industrial revolution and digital economy in the G20 and BRICS agendas.
To promote a more integrated world economy the international monetary system reform is needed – said Paola Subacchi, Research Director of Chatham House. She noted that one of the key G20 areas of activities should be further strengthening of financial institutions, particularly the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The second session of the conference was devoted to multiple persisting challenges which the G20 and BRICS face, including the gap in infrastructure investment and trade and investment systems fragmentation and protectionism.
According to Zia Qureshi, Nonresident Senior Fellow of Brookings Institution, infrastructure is at the nexus of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability. Total investment requirements in next 15 years (2015-2030) are about USD93 trillion, almost twice the value of entire current infrastructure stock. The G20 and BRICS coordination of international cooperation to boost investment from both public and private sources is of great importance. The NDB and AIIB inspired by the BRICS will play an important role in these processes.
Hannah Wurf, Research Associate of the G20 Studies Centre of Lowy Institute for International Policy also spoke on the NDB and AIIB contribution to address a problem of infrastructure investment deficit and presented a prognosis on these new banks` contribution to financing infrastructure projects.
Gabriel Di Bella, Resident Representative of the IMF in Moscow spoke on the next steps towards the international monetary system reform. Like Paola Subacchi, he emphasized that the structural changes in world economy will require changes in the international financial system, particularly strengthening mechanisms for crisis prevention and adjustment and global cooperation on issues and policies affecting global stability.
The trade issues in the G20 and BRICS agendas were presented by Jan Wouters, Full Professor of International Law and International Organizations, Director of Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies - Institute for International Law of KU Leuven and Sang-Chul Park, Professor of Graduate School of Knowledge Based Technology and Energy of Korea Polytechnic University.
The session concluded with a presentation by Zhu Jiejin, Associate Professor of the Center for BRICS Studies of School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University who focused on the G20 and OECD collaboration. According to Professor Zhu, tax is a good case for G20 steering committee.
The second part of the conference started with speeches by H.E. Rüdiger von Fritsch, Ambassador of Germany to the Russian Federation on the priorities of Germany`s upcoming G20 presidency and H.E. Pankaj Saran, Ambassador of India to the Russian Federation on the Indian BRICS presidency outcomes (in English, in Russian).
Thomas Fues, Head of Department of the German Development Institute (DIE) focused on the challenges the German G20 presidency will face. He emphasized that a number of internal and external factors could lead to a less ambitious agenda than during the previous presidencies.
In addition to the Ambassador of India Roman Chukov, Chairman of BRICS Youth Expert Society (BRICS YES) and Russian Y20 Sherpa presented the academic vision of the Goa BRICS summit outcomes.
Huang Wei, Senior Research Fellow, Supervisor of Postgraduate, Director of Research Department of Global Governance, Executive Director of Centre for International Economic and Strategic Studies of Institute of World Economics and Politics of Chinese Academy of Social Science told the participants about the priorities of the China BRICS 2017 presidency.
All speakers emphasized the importance of the G20 and BRICS coordinating efforts and a need for the member countries to use the presidencies for promoting consistency and coherence of the institutions` work.
Andras Horvai, Country Director and Resident Representative for the Russian Federation, Europe and Central Asia of the World Bank shared his vision on the G20 and BRICS as drivers of development agenda.
The conference concluded with the discussion on evolving institutional identity of the G20 and BRICS and their role in the system of global governance.
Marina Larionova, Head of the Center for International Institutions Research (CIIR) of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) shared with the participants the outcomes of the research of the G20 and BRICS engagement with the international organizations.
Andrew F. Cooper, Professor of t\he Department of Political Science and Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo, Director of the Centre for the Study on Rapid Global Change at the University of Waterloo presented his vision of the G20 and BRICS as global clubs.
This theme was continued in the presentation by Marek Rewizorski, Associate Professor at the Institute of Political Science, Faculty of Social Science of University of Gdańsk who told about the G20 Reform as a new global governance mechanism.
From the point of view of Adriana Abdenur, Fellow of Instituto Igarapé, the BRICS member countries have a significant potential in cooperation in the international security sphere and should deepen their collaboration.
Jean-Guy Carrier, Executive Chairman of the Silk Road Chamber of International Commerce (SRCIC) presented the business perspective for the G20/BRICS future priorities with focus on implementation of China`s “One Belt, One Road” initiative.
Presentation by Maria Raquel Freire, Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, Associate Professor in International Relations of School of Economics, Faculty of Economics of University of Coimbra concluded the discussion on the BRICS in the system of multilayered governance.
The conference was wrapped up with the presentation by Ella Kokotsis, Director of Accountability of the G8 and G20 Research Groups of Munk School of Global Affairs of University of Toronto on the G20 and BRICS member compliance with the decisions adopted at the summits.
Programme (in English, in Russian)