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The theme is “BRICS in Africa: Collaboration for Inclusive Growth and Shared Prosperity in the Fourth Industrial Revolution”
Organisers of the Tenth BRICS Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg are gearing up to welcome the more than 5,000 delegates from July 25 to 27.
More than 1,100 media have already been accredited and the media accreditation centre has been issuing media access badges since July 17.
The majority of the media are from China, South Africa, Russia, India, Russia and Brazil. Media from non-BRICS states also feature prominently on the list. The media houses sending the largest contingents of journalists are SABC, CCTV, CGTV, China Daily, Bloomberg, Reuters, Xhinua, RT and Independent News.
The South African government will be working to tackle the trade imbalance and also address complementary trade between it and its BRICS partners, South African government officials said on Thursday.
Lerato Mataboge, deputy director-general at the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti), said that South Africa’s largest export destination was China followed by India, Brazil and Russia, and the trend was the same with imports, with China as the largest source of imports into South Africa.
“One of the concerns for South Africa in this summit is to find a balance of the export basket as the country still exports a lot of primary goods to BRICS countries while importing value-added products from them,” Mataboge said.
“We hope the Summit will bring more collaboration between the member states and focus on inclusive development and peace,” Ambassador Professor Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s advisor in the BRICS Summit, said.
The Presidency has already confirmed that President Cyril Ramaphosa will host President Xi Jinping of China on Tuesday, the day before the BRICS Summit.
“Whilst the US has always ignored Africa, China recognised the economic role of Africa a long time ago and has a strong presence on the continent. This further strengthens the position of BRICS in the world order and can further strengthen trade and bi-lateral agreements between African nations,” Fatima Vawda, Managing Director of 27four Investment Managers told The BRICS Post.
Dawie Roodt, the chief economist at Efficient Group said the focus of the Summit would be on the trade wars.
“The Russians and the Chinese are more interested in the trade war and other international and local issues. I am currently in Siberia and I can see how their economy is struggling. Also, South Africa’s own economic woes mean that we are less attractive. One probable outcome of the BRICS Summit is probably some announcement of a loan to South Africa,” he told The BRICS Post.
Helmo Preuss in Pretoria, South Africa for The BRICS Post
