New Delhi, Sept. 11 -- More than 600 business-to-business meetings were held at the BRICS Business Forum in New Delhi within a few hours on Friday, highlighting strong interest in cross-border trade and investment as business leaders called for fewer barriers and concrete steps to deepen economic cooperation.

Anant Swarup, Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), said the forum had brought together 2,000 delegates, including 1,100 from India and 900 foreign delegates, with businesses using the platform to explore new partnerships.

"We had opened a portal where any one business could have requested for another meeting with another business. In a short span of, say, four hours, five hours, w...