Goyal bats for common Brics trade platform, women-focused fund

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal used the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance Women‑Led Development Conference in New Delhi to call for a unified BRICS trade platform that would enable small and women‑led enterprises to connect with buyers across member countries. He also pressed the bloc to convert the proposed Women’s Advancement Fund into a concrete programme, emphasizing its importance for gender‑inclusive trade.

Goyal identified three main obstacles for entrepreneurs seeking international markets: limited credit, difficulty accessing buyers, and the lack of predictable trade rules. He suggested that a shared platform could display product requirements, share invoices, and involve financial intermediaries to support women and small exporters. The minister urged governments, banks and export‑import banks to consider these invoices in lending decisions, and advocated for sector‑specific women‑led delegations, such as a textiles group, to integrate value chains. He also called for electronic trade documentation, including e‑invoices and e‑customs declarations, and noted that services trade among BRICS nations, worth nearly $10 trillion globally, remains under‑exploited.

The proposal follows the BRICS Commerce and Industry Ministers’ meeting in Jaipur, where members agreed to explore a common trade platform. Goyal highlighted India’s achievements in women’s financial inclusion—nearly 300 million women now have bank accounts and about 100 million rural women belong to self‑help groups or cooperatives—pointing to the potential impact of the initiative on micro, small and medium enterprises. If adopted, the platform could lower entry barriers for women entrepreneurs, boost intra‑BRICS trade, and align with India’s broader agenda of inclusive economic growth.