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Since its formation in March 2013, the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Business Council has proven to be an effective platform for strengthening and promoting economic, trade, business and investment ties among the business communities of the five member states and with the broader African region.
The formation of Brics shows how the developing world has organised itself, and changed the international dialogue to encompass and showcase the member countries, their challenges and opportunities.
Our overarching goal is to bring tangible projects to fruition faster – including developing and implementing those being identified in the Brics Roadmap for Trade, Economic and Investment Cooperation until 2020 – and to strengthen the interface between the governments and private sectors of the Brics economies.
The regular dialogue between business and government, which is enabled by the council and its various working groups, has brought to the fore the key challenges business feels impede greater cooperation. The initiative has successfully created the space to allow business to make recommendations to government.
The council needs to ensure that we continually address our critics and demonstrate, through the showcasing of concrete initiatives, that it and the broader Brics initiative are successful, and are making a significant contribution to growth and development.
The ongoing challenges in the global economy and a spate of negative publicity on the prospects of Brics require us to accelerate efforts to strengthen trade and investment ties among ourselves and our neighbours.
Our government is setting up a one-stop service to facilitate and encourage investment. South Africa introduced a Brics business visa more than a year ago, which allows for multiple entries for up to 10 years. We hope our action in this respect will prompt our partners to follow suit.
We congratulate Russia on initiating the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, as it is another way of facilitating dialogue, and communicating the successes and challenges of the council. We are engaging with Ambassador Petrov in South Africa to facilitate and encourage increased South African participation in the event.
As the South African chapter, we have engaged with the World Economic Forum regarding the African regional meeting to be held in Rwanda from May 11 to 13 this year to have a side event to showcase the council.
We would like to extend an invitation to the other country heads of the Brics Business Council to attend the meeting in Rwanda and engage with African business.
Other key business events, such as the G20 business council and the International Chamber of Commerce’s World Chambers Federation meetings, are examples of where the Brics Business Council should have targeted interventions and events to communicate and showcase the positive contributions and progress we are making.
South Africa is developing a communications strategy and we would encourage the other Brics countries to do the same, with a central coordination role from the secretariat, to align and leverage the council’s messages and initiatives.
A critical step forward has been the development of the Brics bank, and the business council needs to have a continual dialogue with it. South Africa would like to propose that we invite the bank to our meetings and include the president of the bank as an ex officio member of the council.
Molefe is the chairman of the SA chapter of the Brics Business Council. This is an edited extract of his opening remarks during the midterm meeting of the council in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday.
