Moscow is hosting the BRICS International Municipal Forum (IMBRICS) from August 27/28, an event that is bringing together city mayors and related municipal officials from 126 countries, 89 Russian regions and 500 cities to discuss and share information on municipal and urban planning.
The Government of Moscow is acting as the General Partner of the IMBRICS event. It is aimed at integrating positive global experience in the technological, economic, and social development of municipal territories of the BRICS countries and their partners.
An introductory video to the event can be seen here:
Moscow will be sharing its experiences of best practice development, which include traffic management and urban transport. Many of the BRICS nations are emerging economies in their own right, with huge movements of rural populations to the cities occurring.
The event is also noticeable in terms of attendees, while the West claims that Russia has been internationally ostracised, in fact the reverse is true: globally emerging nations are now starting to reject so-called ‘Western values’ – which is the past has often used its trade and development terms for exploitative purposes. Those issues are now coming to the forefront as developing countries turn towards countries such as Russia, China and the other BRICS nations for development know-how, assistance and guidance.
There are commercial benefits too. While China has its Belt & Road Initiative as a form of outbound investment, Russia has also been providing external investments, and especially in the energy field, another important part of powering municipal growth. Both China, Russia and any recipient countries will be looking at investments that can assist wealth creation. This means targeting projects that can generate cash flow returns for the primary investors and as well as the respective sovereign state government. Developing economies are always capital hungry. Forums such as the IMBRICS event act as a showcase for best municipal development practice; and will later lead to project assessments and implementation to secure growth and development for the emerging, 126, non-Western countries that are attending.
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