Question : BRICS Trade Fair

(a) whether a trade fair of the BRICS countries was held recently at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi;
(b) if so, the details and the objectives thereof indicating the names of the BRICS countries along with the number of companies participated in this fair;
(c) whether the said fair has resulted in demand of Indian products in BRICS countries;
(d) if so, the details thereof along with the revenue earned by the Indian Companies as a result thereof; and
(e) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to organize such fairs on regular basis so as to popularise and encourage Indian products?

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (INDEPENDENT CHARGE)
(SMT. NIRMALA SITHARAMAN)

(a) The 1st BRICS Trade Fair was organized at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi from 12-14 October 2016.
(b) to (d): The BRICS Trade Fair was completely an interactive business engagement and was organized with an objective to promote trade and investment opportunities amongst the participating BRICS nations i.e. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. 397 companies participated at the BRICS Trade Fair to showcase the capability of each of the BRICS nations in the identified sectors. About 910 companies participated at various BRICS business engagements and nearly 1601 Business-to-Business (B2B) Meetings took place over three days. The BRICS Trade Fairs, like the other business to business International Trade Fairs was a unique platform for showcasing technologies, goods and services, exploring opportunities for businesses and entering into dialogues and discussions for joint venture partnerships and collaborations. As the BRICS Trade Fair was not a direct consumer fair allowing sales of merchandise, the immediate revenue earned by participating Indian Companies cannot be quantified.

(e) India organised the 1st BRICS Trade Fair during its Presidency pursuant to the announcement made by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India during the BRICS Summit at Ufa, in 2015. The Presidency of BRICS will move to China in 2017 and they would need to take a decision on the organisation of the next BRICS Trade Fair.
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