Anna-Maria Chkoniya's Blog

A Lesson In Business Mobility For The BRICS - How To Fast Track Bureaucracy

July 21, 2015
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So-called “business mobility” is defined as the flow of businessmen and women who are actively engaged in trade and investment activities across borders. It is considered to be crucial in the ever-globalising world as the absolute majority of business executives consider face-to-face communication and in-person meetings across borders to be the most effective way to not only negotiate final agreements and close deals, but to meet new clients, successfully establish and maintain long-term relationships and efficiently transfer technology, leading to greater innovation.

Increasing the business mobility within the BRICS is one of the main priorities of the recently founded BRICS Business Council, as stated by Onkar S Kanwar, Chairman, BRICS Business Council, in a recent interview by the Russia&India Report. To "have a special arrangement for grant of long term visas for bona-fide business people from BRICS countries" so far seems to be the most viable option, that will allow for an increased flow of economic activity across the BRICS borders.

The streamlined entry to other economies inevitably means noticeable reductions in transaction costs, as well as considerable savings in valuable time and resources. This is beneficial for large enterprises, as well as for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), because with lower transactional costs, they will now be able to engage in economic activity thousands of kilometres away - something that was previously inviable due to its costliness. This in turn leads to an increase in productivity and competitiveness of national economies.

Drawing on the experience of the APEC Forum in terms of business mobility, the BRICS Business Council is seriously considering the creation of the BRICS Business Travel Card (similar to the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Travel Card). An agreement on reciprocal visa exemption arrangements, visa facilitation agreements and ten-year-multiple-entries visa to bonafide business executives are among the recommendations made by the Business Council to the BRICS governments in the BRICS Business Council Second Annual Report 2014-2015.

These measures have already proved efficient in the context of the APEC Forum. According to the report Reducing Business Travel Costs: The Success of APEC’s Business Mobility Initiatives (2011) compiled by The Business Mobility Group of APEC, business travel costs for APEC Business Travel Card (ABTC) holders were reduced by 38% over the 12-month period between March-July 2010 and March-July 2011 meaning total savings of USD 3.7 million. There has been a 43.3% reduction in time costs to complete visa applications (savings of USD 272, 000) as well as a 27.8% reduction in fees spent on visa applications saving up to USD 1,5 million. There’s no denying that these are impressive figures.

While striving for innovation and the creation of a completely new economic model, I firmly believe that the BRICS nations ought to use the positive experience of other economic forums and organisations to help propel themselves forwards, instead of closing their eyes on what has worked best for others. After all what sense is there in reinventing the wheel? or in this case the Business Travel Card?

 
 
Picture courtesy of http://steamcommunity.com
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