Business leaders from Egypt, Ethiopia and Kazakhstan on Friday called for more concrete economic cooperation within BRICS, highlighting plans to set up factories in India, align policies and certifications to ease cross-border business, and expand technology and engineering partnerships.
The remarks came on the sidelines of the BRICS Business Forum in New Delhi, where business and government representatives are discussing ways to strengthen economic cooperation among member countries. India’s 2026 BRICS chairship has focused on practical cooperation across trade, technology, supply chains and economic development.
Egyptian smart meter technology company Iskraemeco plans to establish factories in India to serve the Indian and wider Asian markets, its Chairman and CEO Mohamed Elsayed said.
“We are, as an Egyptian company, also going to be establishing a few factories here within India in order to cater for the Indian market and for the Asian markets as well,” Elsayed said.
He said cooperation between Indian and Egyptian businesses was growing and that the company also wanted to expand the movement of talent between the two countries.
“We see that we want to grow that, especially because the Indian and Egyptian talents are more and more very competitive on a global scale,” Elsayed said.
Dereje Walelign Mera, Co-Chair of the BRICS Business Council’s Ethiopian chapter, said aligning policies, certifications and other requirements would be critical to reducing barriers for businesses operating across BRICS countries.
“The main issue for the BRICS is to have an alignment of policies, certifications and what have you, so that we can remove hurdles and barriers,” Mera said.
He stressed that recommendations emerging from the BRICS Business Council should move from discussion to implementation.
“It’s not only talk, it has to be implemented also,” Mera said, adding that the objective was to make bilateral and multilateral business easier and support economic growth.
Meanwhile, Evgeniy Zakharov, Managing Director of Eurasia Special Machines, highlighted opportunities for India-Kazakhstan cooperation in pharmaceuticals, tourism, artificial intelligence and engineering.
He said Kazakhstan was developing AI platforms and saw scope for collaboration with Indian companies, while also pointing to India’s engineering talent.
“I’m sure that we have to collaborate on that as well,” Zakharov said, referring to AI cooperation, and added that India and Kazakhstan could work together remotely on technology and engineering.
The comments underscore a focus at the forum on translating BRICS cooperation into business investments, easier market access and cross-border technology and talent partnerships.
