The upcoming BRICS summit in China's Xiamen will offer an opportunity for helping achieve the development objectives of the Global South, the South African Presidency said on Friday.
Such engagements will also contribute to finding innovative approaches and solutions to South Africa's identified triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality, the Presidency said prior to President Jacob Zuma's departure for China to attend the 9th summit of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), to be hosted on September 3-5.
There has been substantive progress achieved since South Africa joined BRICS in 2011, presidential spokesperson Bongani Ngqulunga said.
"The formation has strengthened its (BRICS') cooperative mechanism for institutional development, most notably witnessed in the creation of the New Development Bank and the recently launched Africa Regional Centre in Johannesburg," said Ngqulunga.
He said South Africa looks forward to meeting with the like-minded BRICS countries.
South Africa expects the dialogue to be reflective of trans-continentalism and to bring together nations with a focus on the needs of the Global South in the context of globalization and future development, Ngqulunga said.
The economic ties between BRICS countries are being strengthened through the Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership that was adopted during the Ufa Summit in Russia in 2015, said Ngqulunga.
In this regard, several agreements in support of the Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership will be signed in the presence of BRICS Leaders at the upcoming summit, Ngqulunga said.
According to figures provided by the South African Presidency, total intra-BRICS trade amounted to 3.06 trillion rand (about 235 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015. South Africa's exports to BRICS countries marginally increased from 123 billion rand in 2011 to 138.2 billion rand in 2016 while in the same period, imports from BRICS countries also increased from 115 billion rand to 230 billion rand.
Source: Xinhua