The economic and investment potential of the BRICS and BRICS+ frameworks lies in their scale, diversity, and shared ambition to shape a new global economic order. This was stated by Walid Farghal, Director General of the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM Congress), in an exclusive interview at the TV BRICS studio in the Roscongress International Cooperation Area at St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) 2025.

“The BRICS and the BRICS+ represent a global segment in economy. Through their combined population – more than 3 billion people – they surpassed their presence as emerging countries to be a group contributing to the global economy and having their own power in terms of economic impact on their populations as well as for neighbouring countries and for all member countries of BRICS,” he said.

Farghal emphasised several areas of high potential for further collaboration: “The areas of cooperation of the BRICS and the BRICS+ countries can be in the green investment, environmental investment, and the climate change. It can be also in the digital economy, the FinTech solutions, logistics, and the transport.”

He noted that development in these sectors would be mutually beneficial: “It plays a key role in all the BRICS countries to contribute to each other through their own resources, their own manufacturing requirements.”

The Director General of AIM Congress also stressed the importance of inclusive growth and support for small and medium-sized businesses.

He concluded by calling for a joint effort to reduce barriers to trade and investment: “It is very important to develop easy policies from all the governments of BRICS, which will facilitate more investment and trade flows in these countries.”

Photo: Anton Novoderezhkin /
Roscongress Foundation photo bank