The meeting of the BRICS Business Council was held on April 3-4, 2019 in Johannesburg (South Africa). 

The Russian delegation included representatives of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Russian Embassy in South Africa, the Russian Trade Representation in South Africa, Russian Railways, «Rostec» State Corporation, «VEB.RF» State Corporation, «Rosatom» State Nuclear Energy Corporation, Agencies of strategic initiatives, the Russian direct investment fund, WorldSkills Russia and other organizations. The delegation was headed by Dmitry Kurochkin, Vice-President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

There were a number of priority areas outlined during the speech of Dmitry Kurochkin: strengthening cooperation in the digital economy, interaction with the New Development Bank, working on a new international payment system. Various industry working groups took part in the event.

The members of the financial working group supported the proposal to create a mechanism for mutual recognition of the ratings of the BRICS countries, as well as the need of developing a concept and technical solutions for the New International Payment System BRICS Pay, combining the payments of the countries- participants.
During the meeting of the working group on digital economics, representatives of Russia and China signed a Memorandum of Understanding, aimed at implementing a multilateral project to create the BRICS Digital Literacy School.

The Russian side of the working group on deregulation presented a project to launch a digital platform for the entrepreneurs’ appeal. The members of the working group on infrastructure discussed the possibilities of increasing the transport and logistics potential of BRICS, as well as cooperation with the New Development Bank in the field of financing perspective projects.

The Vice-President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry also paid attention to the report about the BRICS countries' exhibition market, prepared by Expocentre JSC. Russia suggested the BRICS member countries to establish a network of exhibition centers in which products produced by their enterprises would be demonstrated on an ongoing basis. “We propose to develop the network of exhibition centers. It would help to strengthen business ties between the business people of our countries,” said Dmitry Kurochkin and stressed that suggestions for the development of joint exhibition and congress activities are already "on the table" of the BRICS Council working groups.

According to Dmitry Kurochkin, “entrepreneurs of our countries have a lack of basic information,” which is needed here and now. The network of trade and exhibition centers operating on a permanent basis could give a new pulse to the development of trade relations and investment cooperation between the economies of the five countries.