As excitement and interest builds up for the BRICS Summit, hosted by South Africa in August this year, the country has experienced a busy calendar on the diplomatic front.
Ministers, ambassadors and business people from BRICS countries have gathered at the Sandton Convention Centre where the ANC Progressive Business Forum (PBF) is hosting a colloquium as part of build-up activities for the upcoming BRICS Political Parties Plus Dialogue.
The colloquium, themed ‘BRICS & Africa for Trade, Sustainable Development and Shared Prosperity,’ will see business people, Ministers and Ambassadors from BRICS countries meet to interact with their South African counterparts in various strategic sessions “to pursue a common goals of cooperation and partnerships”.
The sessions will be in the form of panel discussions and are designed to translate into actual partnerships, investments and collaboration, the organisers have said.
ANC treasury-general Dr Gwen Ramokgopa said the deliberations from the day would be collated and processed during BRICS Political Parties Plus Dialogue taking place next week.
Ramokgopa said the gathering of business people on Thursday allowed the business community from the BRICS countries to raise what their aspirations were and to set the agenda for growth, sustainable economic development and multi-lateral relations going forward.
BRICS countries represent over 42% of the global population and over 31,5% of the world’s GDP, but Ramokgopa said that unfortunately BRICS only represented around 18% of trade in the world.
Thus the theme, ‘BRICS & Africa for Trade, Sustainable Development and Shared Prosperity.’
“We will look at, how can we enhance trade?
“It is time to stop begging, but part of stopping that begging is to be productive. We need to look at the economic endowments we have and unlock this. We need to be working together and enhancing fair trade and closing that trade deficit,” she said.
She said it was also important that the youth were part of the developments as “the youth who are hungry to participate can be translated into economic growth.”
Ramokgopa said they wanted to harness the full potential of the BRICS and Africa, but they hoped and trusted that the advancement of those left behind was not seen as a threat to any of the advanced countries, “but as a ‘must do’ to ensure that even the advanced countries are not the only ones carrying the aspirations of the world.”
kailene.pillay@inl.co.za
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