From New Delhi to Hangzhou: A "BRICS Appointment" Across Mountains and Seas — The 2026 BRICS Special Economic Zones Hangzhou Dialogue is About to Kic

From "Incoming Visit" to "Return Visit"

Institutional Cooperation Moves Toward Greater Depth

From September 10 to 13, Hangzhou dispatched a delegation to New Delhi, India, to attend the 2026 BRICS Business Forum. The delegation was led by Yang Fan, Vice Chairman of Qiantang District Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Director of Hangzhou Qiantang Core Valley Management Office, with members from Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Qiantang District Federation of Industry and Commerce, and District Bureau of Commerce. This is an appointment spanning mountains and seas, as well as a reunion of old friends. During the forum, the delegation had extensive exchanges with representatives of government departments, business communities, financial institutions and international organizations of BRICS countries, enthusiastically promoting Hangzhou's industrial development and open platforms to all parties. During their stay in India, the delegation also visited a number of economic and trade institutions, conducted practical negotiations on special economic zone cooperation, digital trade and industrial docking, and accumulated solid resources for deepening follow-up cooperation.

This visit is a further deepening of the previous cooperation achievements. In May this year, relevant Indian institutions organized an enterprise delegation to visit Qiantang District, Hangzhou, and held docking and exchange activities with Hangzhou enterprises such as Unitree Robotics and Alibaba in the international reception hall of the BRICS Center. Relevant officials from Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce promoted the Global Digital Trade Expo at the event, which jointly facilitated Indian merchants to participate in the 5th Global Digital Trade Expo. In this return visit, the two sides conducted in-depth communication focusing on BRICS industrial and commercial cooperation and resource docking of key enterprises, and signed a memorandum of economic and trade exchange and cooperation. From "mutual occasional visits" to "frequent mutual exchanges", the previous interactions are yielding more tangible results.

From institutional docking to enterprise cooperation, from one-off interaction to regular exchanges, Hangzhou is continuously expanding the BRICS cooperation network, promoting precise docking of more projects, enterprises and resources, and accelerating the building of a model for economic and trade cooperation among BRICS countries.

September 24

Meet in Hangzhou

The next stop of the cooperation is back in Hangzhou. On September 24, the 2026 BRICS Special Economic Zone Hangzhou Dialogue will kick off at Hall 1-C of Hangzhou International Expo Center.

Underpinning this dialogue is a network with the full participation of all special economic zones in Hangzhou. After the BRICS Center was established, Hangzhou has built a working system of "led by Qiantang New Area, with the full participation of all special economic zones across the city": The Municipal Bureau of Commerce, together with Qiantang New Area, took the lead in undertaking the physical operation of the BRICS Center, built and operated the International Reception Hall of the BRICS Center, set up the "BRICS Government Service Station" integrating 110 service items, and promoted 11 institutions including the Uzbekistan National Pavilion, Cainiao Smart Valley, and Taotian Group to set up "BRICS Special Economic Zone Service Stations"; Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone, China (Zhejiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone and other zones give full play to their respective advantages, pair up with special economic zones of BRICS countries to deepen industrial coordination; relying on the "BRICS Direct Train · Hangzhou to BRICS" brand, a series of activities such as national promotion and enterprise globalization acceleration camps are delivered to enterprises, and 33 special policies in 6 areas are simultaneously implemented, so as to accelerate the transformation of the service efficiency of national-level platforms into real assistance for enterprises to explore BRICS markets.

What are the highlights of this year's dialogue

Five Highlights for You to Preview First

Highlight 1

Combined AI Cooperation Measures

From "AI+" talent training to the "Brain-Computer Integration" Young Scientist Program, and then to industrial exchange and dialogue, Hangzhou is promoting BRICS cooperation to move toward "newness" and "intelligence" with the advantages of the digital economy, and this set of "AI+" measures is well worth looking forward to.

Highlight 2

Pragmatic Expansion of Park Pairing

More special economic zones of BRICS member states and partner countries will pair up with Hangzhou parks, turning the consensus reached at the dialogue table into landed cooperation projects. The story has only just begun after the handshake.

Highlight 3

Special Exhibition Area Debuts for the First Time

The themed pavilion of the 5th Global Digital Trade Expo will set up a special exhibition area for BRICS special economic zones for the first time, gathering 11 BRICS special economic zones together. Covering everything from industrial layout to investment promotion policies, from landed projects to cooperation cases, this exhibition area presents the full picture of BRICS special economic zones. Hangzhou in the golden autumn season sincerely invites you to join us.

Highlight 4

Full-chain Connection of Inspection and Docking

On-site inspections before the conference and procurement docking during the conference are carried out simultaneously, forming a complete chain of "visiting real scenarios - negotiating cooperation - promoting implementation", which is interlinked from visiting to negotiating and then to landing.

Highlight 5

Supporting Training Programs Held Simultaneously

This dialogue also attracts a group of special participants: Trainees from the BRICS Development Zone Construction and Management Training Course and the BRICS Digital Economy and Zero-carbon Industrial Park Coordinated Development Training Course organized by the Ministry of Commerce will come to the scene. They include officials from the competent government departments of relevant BRICS countries, representatives of special economic zone management institutions, as well as experts and scholars from universities and research institutes, and front-line backbones of enterprises. Hangzhou's experience is being transformed into "solutions" that they can learn from and implement.

From New Delhi to Hangzhou, from the Business Forum to the Hangzhou Dialogue, Hangzhou is deepening economic and trade exchanges with BRICS countries with a more open attitude, continuously expanding the "circle of friends" for BRICS cooperation, better serving enterprises to "go global" and attracting high-quality international resources to "come in", contributing Hangzhou's strength to deepening economic and trade cooperation among BRICS countries.

*Article source: Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce

This article is from the WeChat official account "Zhejiang Enterprises Globalization Comprehensive Service Port".