International Municipal BRICS Forum

The Forum was held for the first time in September 2019 at the Lenexpo exhibition complex, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. The business programme included 30 sessions. Representatives of municipalities from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa exchanged best practices in territorial development, presented investment projects and established new business contacts.

The Forum programme was aimed at discussing key issues in the fields of economy and investment, construction and real estate operations, trade and small- and medium-sized enterprise development, industry, agriculture, ecology, tourism, culture and education, and sports. More than 700 participants attended the event. The Forum also included a sports programme, namely the International Municipal Rugby Sevens Tournament between teams from the BRICS countries.

The delegates summarised the results of the work and developed a draft roadmap for cooperation between municipalities in the BRICS countries. The draft roadmap included proposals on strengthening interaction between municipalities; transition to renewable, environmentally friendly energy sources; separate collection and proper recycling of waste; development of new tourist destinations; establishment of a working group to identify the main needs of BRICS municipalities in the context of cooperation and exchange of experience on state and municipal practices in BRICS countries and cities; development of cultural exchanges; development of the sports industry, and others.

The 2020 Forum was held under the auspices of the Russian BRICS Presidency and was included in the text of the Moscow Declaration of the 12th BRICS Summit adopted by the BRICS leaders. The business programme of the Forum was jointly organised by various ministries, federal services, federal universities and public organisations of the Russian Federation. The total number of speakers at the 2020 Forum was over 170, and the number of connected users was 3,796. A number of high-ranking officials from the BRICS countries addressed the Forum's business sessions, including the Deputy Mayor of the City of São Paulo (Brazil), the Counsellor to the Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa to the Russian Federation, and the Consuls General of India and China. In addition to the BRICS countries, the Forum was attended by speakers and listeners from Italy, Spain, Argentina, Mali, Peru, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Nigeria, Mongolia, Mexico, Egypt, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Denmark, Austria and other countries.

The business programme consisted of 29 sessions covering a wide range of topical issues in various fields. The IMBRICS+ began on November 5 with a discussion on the modernisation of urban passenger transport, urbanism and the creation of a pleasant urban environment, and the development of domestic tourism in the five countries. The agenda of the second day of the Forum included the following topics: digitalisation and its impact on society, investment cooperation, import and export, exchange of electoral practices, anti-monopoly regulation, prevention of infectious diseases, inter-party cooperation, youth work and social protection. The Forum programme also included a number of ceremonies for the signing of cooperation agreements, in particular between the Brazilian city of Guarulhos and the Russian cities of Perm and Chelyabinsk.

On November 5-6, the III IMBRICS+ was held in St. Petersburg in an online format. The Forum was planned to be held in a face-to-face format, but due to the increasing incidence of coronavirus infection in St. Petersburg, the Forum was moved to an online format. The platform for the Forum was Zoom and the organisers broadcast from the Nevskaya Ratusha business center.

The Forum included 24 sessions (videoconferences) with 235 speakers and moderators. The duration of each session was 2 hours. All sessions were streamed live on the YouTube channel. Individual sessions were also broadcast in the official VKontakte group.

The business programme included the following thematic blocks: economy and business, AI, digitalisation, urbanism, infrastructure development, development of remote territories, import-export relations, energy, ecology, cultural heritage, tourism, integrated development of territories, sustainable development, investment cooperation, health, agriculture, industry, youth policy, sport, public diplomacy and others. The meetings were attended by The Mayor of Guarulhos, the Vice-Mayor of Recife (Brazil), the President of the All-India Association of Industries, the Vice-Mayor of Panzhou (China), the Mayor of Palermo (Italy), the Ambassador of the Republic of Argentina in Russia, the President of the Chamber of the European Council of Engineers (Austria) and others. The Forum was addressed in the form of video messages by Kundapur Vaman Kamath, Honorary President of the New Development Bank (BRICS Bank), Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Evgeny Primakov, Head of Rossotrudnichestvo, Alexei Kudrin, Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, Li Jian, Vice-Mayor of Qingdao (China), and others.

During the forum, 11 agreements on international cooperation between regions and municipalities were signed, in particular between Krasnodar Region and the Chinese city of Jinhua, Gorodetsky District of Nizhny Novgorod Region and the Brazilian city of Trinidad.

The IV IMBRICS+ Forum was held at the Expoforum Exhibition and Convention Centre in St. Petersburg. The Forum was highlighted in the text of the Beijing Declaration of the XIV BRICS Summit as an event contributing to the promotion of networking among BRICS partner cities within the framework of the sustainable development agenda. The event was attended by 3,179 participants from 37 countries and the number of online connections exceeded 15,000.

The Forum's business programme included 40 sessions, 17 round tables, 5 business trainings and 21 online sessions. The agenda of the first day of the Forum was dedicated to the development of digitalisation processes, the future of alternative energy, urbanism and smart cities, the transformation of logistics, the role of NGOs, child safety and the future of youth.

The second day's programme aimed to discuss the following topics: charity, the impact of tourism development on the image of cities, socio-economic development of communities, maintaining the welfare of the population, import substitution, as well as economic recovery in the post-world and the development of international cooperation in the era of global geopolitical changes. The business programme featured 511 speakers, including the Deputy Speaker of the State Duma, the Head of the Representative Office of the China Committee for the Promotion of International Trade and the China Chamber of International Trade, the Governor of Algiers (Algeria), the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of South Africa, In the form of a video message, the participants of the Forum were welcomed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, the Mayor of São Paulo (Brazil), the President of the BRICS International Forum (India) and the Chairman of the Shanghai Junjin Asset Management Corporation (India).

153 agreements on international cooperation between representatives of business, regions and municipalities were signed during the Forum, including those between the Durban City Council (South Africa) and St. Petersburg City Council, the cities of Nizhny Novgorod and Harbin (China), St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University and universities in Egypt, Iran and China.

On November 9-10, 2023, on the eve of the enlargement of the association, the V International Municipal BRICS Forum was held. More than 7,000 people from 104 countries took part, including delegates from over 200 foreign cities. The number of online listeners reached 20,000 people. The Forum was organised with the support of the Moscow City Government, in particular the Department of Foreign Economic and International Relations.

The business programme included 123 events on digital transformation and AI, sustainable development, urbanism, investment, foreign trade, media and communications, national sovereignty and society. More than 1,340 people participated as moderators, speakers, panellists and experts. Among them: Deputy Chair of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, Minister of Women, Youth and People with Disabilities of South Africa, Secretary of International Cooperation of the State of Santa Catarina (Brazil), President of the Eastern Regional Council of Cameroon, and Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Angola and the Kingdom of Bahrain.

In addition to the discussion of the business programme agenda, the Forum hosted an international chess tournament, an interregional children's rugby 7s tournament, and a friendly football match between the teams of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly and representatives of the IMBRIC Forum.

As part of the practice of exchange of experience and technologies, 210 cooperation agreements were signed between representatives of municipalities, public organisations and commercial companies, in particular between the IMBRICS Forum Organising Committee and the Moscow City Duma.

In 2024, there were two events in the official calendar of the Russian BRICS Presidency - the VI IMBRICS Forum in Moscow and the VI IMBRICS Economic Congress (fall session) in St. Petersburg.

For the August event in Moscow, the Moscow City Government acted as the general partner and co- organiser of the Forum. A total of 6,127 people attended the event, including 1,133 foreign delegates from 101 countries. More than 100,000 participants and listeners connected online. The business programme of the Moscow Forum was devoted to inter-parliamentary and municipal cooperation, in particular the exchange of practices in tourism development, the creation of platforms for continuous dialogue between cities and regions, key aspects of municipal governance and integrated territorial development, sustainable development, digitalisation, health care, urban modernisation, education and science. Among the 720 speakers, moderators, rapporteurs and experts were the Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council, the Chairman of the Moscow City Duma, the Head of the Municipality of Kazan, the Deputy Mayor of Beijing (China), the Chairman of the Tehran City Council (Iran), the Head of the Executive Power of Baku (Azerbaijan), the President of the People's Assembly of the Vilayet of Algiers (Algeria), the President of the International Investment Forum (UAE) and others. The Russian Foreign Minister and the Mayor of Istanbul (Turkey) delivered welcome addresses in the form of video messages. All 89 events were streamed live on the Forum's official website.

During the Forum, 307 agreements on international municipal cooperation were signed between Russian cities and their counterparts from BRICS member and partner countries. In particular, agreements were signed between the Moscow City Government and the authorities of Tehran (Iran), São Paulo (Brazil) and Cebu (Philippines).

In St. Petersburg, the EC VI IMBRICS Forum (fall session) focused on the development of export-import relations and cooperation between the business communities of BRICS cities and partner countries. The November event gathered more than 3,500 participants. The event attracted a lot of attention from entrepreneurs from major BRICS cities. About 80 agreements were signed as a result of the forum, including agreements with the Korean Business Association, representatives of Vietnam and others. The event was held with the support of the St. Petersburg government. V. Moskalenko, Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg, took part in the opening of the Forum and the Plenary Session of the EC VI IMBRICS Forum; Vice-Governor S. Kropachev also spoke at the reception. The business programme included a major block chaired by Vice- Governor O. Ergashev during the year.