Digital Currencies and Project Marketplace: BRICS Advances Its New Investment Platform
The BRICS investment platform was first discussed in October 2024 at the Kazan summit. Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed opening the platform on the basis of the New Development Bank. The goal was to support the national economies of the association’s members and provide them with financing using electronic resources. Later, in the summer of 2025, the initiative developed further. The discussion turned to the creation of a full-fledged digital platform for settlements and investments.
It might seem that the New Development Bank has long and successfully financed infrastructure projects of BRICS countries and other emerging economies. However, the New Development Bank is a classic intergovernmental financial instrument that issues large loans, whereas the investment platform is conceived as a flexible multifunctional digital mechanism specifically for attracting private and long-term capital.
While the NDB operates through standard interbank financing channels, the platform is expected to be built on modern financial technologies and digital assets. The scale and geography of projects will also differ. Unlike the NDB, the investment platform is intended to expand coverage beyond the core of BRICS itself, focusing on Global South countries, emerging markets and partner states with high demographic growth.
Thus experts characterize the new investment platform as a tool that can become a link between business and financial institutions. It will function somewhat like a marketplace or ecosystem where clear project portfolios will be presented. Participants will be able to assess risks and find suitable sources of capital.
Abed Amiri, expert in economic and technological cooperation within BRICS, digital transformation and the use of AI in business:
“Such a model can be especially useful for small and medium-sized businesses. Not every company has its own international team, yet many have competitive products, technologies and ideas. They need access not only to money but also to information, expertise and reliable contacts.”
If such a scheme is implemented, the NDB may assume the role of the financial and institutional backbone of the new ecosystem. The platform should not be seen as a replacement for the bank, Abed Amiri believes: it could help prepare projects, while the New Development Bank would assess financing possibilities and attract partners. This may happen in the coming years, though not all at once. A unified digital platform and an interactive map of special economic zones — Invest Navigator of BRICS SEZs — have already been launched, and the full deployment of the entire ecosystem will take place in stages, notes in a conversation with TV BRICS Lavlish Taneja, Deputy Chairman and Head of Cooperation with India at the Russian-Asian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. In addition, the continuation of technical work on the platform is confirmed by a point in the New Delhi Declaration:
“We once again call for the continuation of work at the technical level on the New Investment Platform (NIP), based on the principles agreed during Brazil’s presidency. We also welcome the progress in discussions on the NIP achieved during India’s presidency. We note the constructive technical discussions among BRICS countries regarding the creation of a special working group within the BRICS financial track as a platform for technical dialogue and knowledge exchange,” the document states.
From Transport and Logistics to AI and Green Energy
It is expected that financial flows through the new BRICS investment platform will primarily go to priority areas for the association. These include logistics corridors, urban infrastructure, technologies and artificial intelligence, as well as renewable energy sources. Experts separately note projects in the field of “superintelligence” (SI) and healthcare, where there is significant potential to support digital health platforms, medical technologies, wearable sensors, robotics, AI-based diagnostics and innovations aimed at improving the efficiency of the human body.
Habib Noorbhai, expert in artificial intelligence, new technologies and international sports:
“For business, the value of such a platform goes beyond simple access to capital. It can facilitate cross-border partnerships, technology transfer, entry into new markets and the scaling of innovations in BRICS countries.”
This can be especially useful for startups and small and medium-sized enterprises that possess strong technologies but lack the capital or business connections needed for international expansion. Moreover, for many investors and companies the investment platform potentially opens access to large-scale state and international projects.
Thus, during a visit to India, speaking to business leaders of BRICS countries on the eve of the summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia is ready to work with partners on infrastructure and logistics projects, including the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor and the International North-South Transport Corridor, as well as to cooperate in the fields of technology, artificial intelligence, unmanned transport, finance, tourism and industry.
Support for Own Technologies and Rapid Implementation of Ideas
Yet the main task of the new investment platform, according to experts, is not so much the provision of financing as the shortening of the path from idea to implementation. Today, for example, says Abed Amiri, finding a promising project is only the first step. Then partners must be verified, terms agreed, legal issues resolved, financing attracted and settlements organized. The need for this kind of cooperation among the countries of the “ten” is great. This has led to the appearance of local technological and business platforms such as BRICS HUB Moscow, which positions itself as a venue uniting startups and venture funds of BRICS countries. Now, specialists say, scale, speed and significant simplification of communications are needed for joint effective work. This is precisely what the new BRICS investment platform should provide.
“A multilingual environment is needed where language and geography do not become obstacles to business interaction. An entrepreneur should be able to present his project, find a partner and discuss terms of cooperation regardless of the language in which he works,” emphasizes Abed Amiri, expert in economic and technological cooperation within BRICS, digital transformation and the use of AI in business.
Specialists are also confident that the investment platform should direct resources toward the development of science and intellectual property in BRICS countries rather than entrenching dependence on technologies developed outside them. This also applies to the technologies that must ensure the operation of the platform itself. For its launch and successful functioning, according to Lavlish Taneja, integration of digital and electronic assets is needed, along with the use of tokenized instruments, stablecoins and digital national currencies to bypass traditional settlements.
“In addition, work will be required to create sustainable mechanisms for cross-border settlements, and this implies the development of settlement systems (such as BRICS Pay or alternative clearing mechanisms) for the conversion of funds directly into the currency of the recipient country,” emphasizes in an interview with TV BRICS Lavlish Taneja, Deputy Chairman and Head of the direction for organizing cooperation with India at the Russian-Asian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
Today active work is already under way in BRICS countries on the interoperability of payment systems.
“I consider improving the interoperability of national payment systems a necessary direction of work. The practical priority is to make cross-border settlements clearer, more predictable and more convenient for business, including in national currencies,” says Abed Amiri.
On the eve of the summit in India the countries of the “ten” considered the possibility of uniting fast payment systems and central bank digital currencies. This, according to the words of Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra, conveyed by TV BRICS partner Brasil 247, would make it possible to reduce the cost of cross-border operations. Participants in the association discussed several options for financial integration. Discussions focused on increasing the efficiency of transfers between countries, yet a specific model and the timeline for its implementation have not yet been determined. Technical parameters of a possible common infrastructure are also not disclosed. Nevertheless, the New Delhi Declaration confirms work on joint settlement centers, the investment platform and a platform for settlements in national currencies, and at the level of finance ministries and central banks of BRICS countries the creation of a special working group on the platform of the New Development Bank is being discussed. Its task is to elaborate in detail the technical, regulatory and operational parameters of the new investment platform.
Prospects of the Investment Platform and Its Significance for Global South Countries
The investment platform can become not only a powerful tool for supporting the national economies of BRICS countries but also potentially provide resources to countries of the entire Global South and East, offering them alternative sources of financing, reducing dependence on Western institutions and strengthening their economic sovereignty.
“In many countries of the Global South there are talented researchers, entrepreneurs and young innovators, yet access to financing, infrastructure, computing power and international markets remains uneven. The BRICS platform could help close this gap by financing solutions relevant to local conditions and by uniting the innovation ecosystems of different countries,” is confident Professor Habib Noorbhai, Deputy Dean for Research and Innovation at North-West University (South Africa).
Moreover, for the Global South the BRICS investment platform may in the future provide an opportunity to develop solutions that take into account the characteristics of their populations, the specifics of data, natural conditions and national priorities. In particular, in the field of AI this could strengthen sovereignty and stimulate the creation of models trained on local data and better reflecting the diversity of the population, specialists believe. This means that ultimately the platform could help countries move from the status of consumers of advanced technologies to the role of their developers, owners and exporters, which is especially important today for the Global South.
As soon as BRICS countries agree on the conceptual model of the new investment platform, the association will move to the stage of technological design and regulatory integration. Subsequent steps may include the creation of a digital contour, the setting of interoperability of central bank digital currencies of participating countries, the harmonization of national legislation, as well as the integration of exchanges and banks. All these stages will be required not merely to engage in intergovernmental lending but to create mechanisms capable of uniting projects, state institutions and private capital.
“Technology is important here, but it does not cancel institutions. One cannot create a single interface and thereby eliminate differences in the banking and currency regulation of BRICS countries. One can do something else — hide this complexity from the user and turn international work into a clear process,” believes Abed Amiri.
When creating the investment platform, according to Lavlish Taneja, developers may encounter practical barriers: from cultural and legal differences to the heterogeneity of markets. Therefore the processes of alignment will have to be approached in a targeted and staged manner. The main criterion of the platform’s success will depend on this. And that, according to specialists, is not the complexity of technologies but the number of implemented projects.
“BRICS needs an environment in which a business contact turns into cooperation, cooperation into investment, and investment into production, innovation and new jobs,” summarizes Abed Amiri, expert in economic and technological cooperation within BRICS, digital transformation and the use of AI in business.