Riyaz Patel
President Cyril Ramaphosa has tld his BRICS Counterparts in Brazil that “much still needs to be done” to implement elements of the Economic Partnership Strategy adopted at the 7th BRICS Summit in 2015.
In particular, Ramaphosa said, “there is tremendous scope to expand the value of trade and investment between BRICS countries, and to address the trade imbalance between our economies.”
The Strategy Ramaphosa reminded, aims to promote mutual trade and investment while creating a business-friendly environment for investors and entrepreneurs in all BRICS countries.
“As a country that is primarily an exporter of commodities to its BRICS partners, South Africa supports a shift towards complementary and value-added trade,” he added.
Ramaphosa outlined to his BRICS partners that South Africa has “made steady progress in improving the ease of doing business in the country by focusing on factors that contribute to the country’s improved competitiveness.”
He said that South Africa’s macroeconomic environment has proven resilient, even under great fiscal pressure,
South Africa, he said is emerging from a period of difficulty as it confronts “challenges that are immense, but not insurmountable.”
The South African President also announced that the BRICS Ministers of Trade have adopted the Terms of Reference that will guide the operations of Partnership for the New Industrial Revolution (PartNIR) to harness the opportunities and confront the challenges of the 4th Industrial Revolution.
On the Africa free trade area AfCFTA, Ramaphosa said BRICS member states will “reap the economic benefits of such partnerships” as they are already active on the continent.
“We must continue collectively to work together to implement the important initiatives that we have agreed at past Summits and during this one, including the creation of the physical BRICS Vaccine Research Centre in South Africa that we agreed to last year in Johannesburg,” President Ramaphosa added.
President Ramaphosa also held a bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China on the sidelines of the 11th BRICS Summit.
