Putin calls on BRICS countries to expand economic cooperation

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on the association of BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) to expand economic cooperation.
"I am confident that closer cooperation between the BRICS states in the area of economy and finance will facilitate the implementation of really large-scale joint programs in the interests of sustainable development of our countries," Putin said on Tuesday at a plenary meeting of the summit of the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), (Itar-Tass) reported.
The BRICS Business Council currently works on a number of promising multi-party projects, including those aiming at improving investment climate. Moreover, the BRICS banking forum has been functioning efficiently. "An important area of economic cooperation is a stock exchange alliance," Putin said, adding that this alliance ensured cross-listing of shares of more than 7,000 companies from the BRICS countries with an overall capitalization of about $8 trillion by means of expanding the circle of investors and helping to bolster liquidity of shares.
Putin noted that the BRICS had more than 20 cooperation formats - from annual summits to working groups on international information security, healthcare, farming, science and technology, and others.
BRICS is the abbreviation of five countries- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and it is annually held since 2009, to build better global economies ties among all five nations.
All five BRICS nations are also the members of G-20 and the sixth summit has also invited Argentina for the first time, to make it the sixth member in its group.