XIME International Conference of BRICS countries..

Conference of BRICS Business Schools

January 31, 2009 at XIME, Bangalore, India

It was in 2001 that the US investment bank, Goldman Sachs, coined the acronym BRIC to categorize the leadingemerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India and China–which have the potential to rank as the four dominant economies of the world by 2050.

Since then the world has warmed to this defining idea about the twenty first century.

In the coming years, BRIC countries will be seen cooperating in several fields, ranging from the World Trade Organization (WTO) to non-governmental programmes and initiatives. The process of globalization will draw considerable strength and purpose from such cooperation.

Management education is a field which should have the pride of place among the possible areas of cooperation among BRIC countries. For in all the four countries, developing managers for their expanding domains of business and industry is a formidable task demanding much by way of ideas, resources and execution. Sharing of experiences through academic exchanges and cooperation among their business schools is bound to provide enormous benefits to faculty and students alike.

This was the guiding thought which led the Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship (XIME) to hold a conclave of BRIC Business Schools in January 2008. The event was organized as part of a seminar on "Management Education in a Globalizing World" – and it proved to be an auspicious starting point. All the more so, because the conference also added another country to the group – South Africa, the leading economy of the African continent – the acronym now becoming BRICS and representing all the five continents.

Following this seminal initiative, another conference to pursue the theme of cooperation among business schools in BRIC countries took place in Shanghai last April. This was followed by a conference with wider participation which was held in Moscow last October, hosted by the State University of Management. A Memorandum of cooperation among BRICS universities was signed on this occasion.

The idea of cooperation in the field of management education having progressed so far, XIME is now hosting another conference of select business schools from BRICS countries entitled "Conference of BRICS Business Schools" during January 30-31, 2009. The venue is the XIME campus at Electronics City in Bangalore.

This conference will bring together representatives of business schools from all the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in an exceptional gathering. They will discuss not only possibilities of exchanges and cooperation in the field of management education, but also deliberate on issues of common concern to BRICS countries in the context of the present global economic slow down.

Presentations at the conference from delegates will include :

• Managerial Capacity building for Russia's Economy

• Industry-Academia Collaboration in Brazil

• China's Special Economic Zones

• Entrepreneurship Training and Development in China

• Prospects for Cooperation in Management Education between China and other BRICS Countries

• MBA Curriculum Development Issues in China

• What South Africa can bring into BRICS

This is truly a 'BRICS moment' as it is the first-time that such a gathering is taking place and deliberating on issues of topical importance to management schools in these leading emerging nations of the world.

Venue : Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Electronic City Phase II

Date : 31 January, 2009

Time : 9 AM

The Conference would get over by 3.30 PM.

XIME feels immensely privileged to host such a conference.

george..