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![Davies says the Business Council will intensify cooperation among BRICS countries [Getty Images]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/102437911-300x200.jpg)
Davies says South Africa’s membership in BRICS comes at a crucial time [Getty Images]
The South African minister said its membership of BRICS has come at a strategically crucial time.
“BRICS is the most significant grouping of developing countries in the world,” Davies said.
He said South Africa has to move from primary production to value-added production.
“That has to be driven by regional integration, because the domestic market of our country is too small to provide that,” said Davies in his keynote address in a post-BRICS seminar at Wits Business School.
According to Standard Bank, BRICS–Africa trade will increase threefold, from $150 billion in 2010 to $530 billion in 2015.
The minister also said South Africa takes BRICS as a platform to address challenges in intra-BRICS trade and to coordinate in WTO as a group.
The biggest economy in African continent will also gain advancing support from BRICS for Africa’s development agenda, such as regional integration, industrial capacity and infrastructure development, Davies asserted.
President Jacob Zuma has repeatedly emphasised the growing ties between BRICS and the African continent, and has also backed Africa as the host of the recently announced BRICS Development Bank.
Today, the BRICS countries are the largest investors in the continent.
The African continent, which is arguably one of the world’s largest unexplored resource basins, has abundance of riches; including 10 per cent of the world’s oil reserves, 40 per cent of its gold ore and 95 per cent of platinum.
With inputs from Agencies
