Mining mogul and business leader Dr Patrice Motsepe has urged African leaders and businesses to forge meaningful and mutually beneficial partnerships with BRICS countries.
Motsepe, who is the inaugural chairperson of the BRICS Business Charter in South Africa, said mutual partnerships and benefits were at the centre economic development among BRICS countries.
Motsepe was speaking during his address at the BRICS Business Forum ahead of the official start of the 15th BRICS Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre on Tuesday afternoon just moments before President Cyril Ramaphosa was expected to officially open the summit.
Among the heads of state to be welcomed by Ramaphosa were leaders from other BRICS countries including Brazilian President Lulo da Silva, China’s Xi Jinping and India’s Narendra Modi following their arrival to South Africa on Monday.
Motsepe said that over the years, trade between South Africa and other BRICS countries including China, India, Russia and Brazil had grown significantly as a result of the mutual beneficial relations between these countries.
“SA CEOs have been trading among BRICS countries. At the start of 2013 when we started the trade in goods and services between South Africa was just under $100 billion, and the objective was to increase this to $400bn.
“The relationship in BRICS countries, if you look at EU market, it is a big market and the American market is equally a big market and other parts of the world. South Africa with 60 million people has seen this partnership growing as a result of the formation of BRICS,” he said.
He said the key to economic development and growth lay in forging and encouraging beneficial partnership adding that both South Africa as well as the African continent should be positioning themselves not as beggars but as equal partners who offer competitive goods and services.
“We have to position ourselves as a country and continent that produce goods and services. We can’t have relationships based on aid and donations. If we get it right, we are looking at over six trillion in trade of goods and services. We need to focus on the positive because you cannot build an economy and continent by focusing on deficiencies, but on goods commodities and services,” Motsepe said.
He said the future of Africa was bright and offered the rest of the world far greater opportunities for growth due to the continent’s natural resources as well as a relatively young population found across the continent as one of the continents dominated by young young people, who are the future.
“We have a clear understanding of the challenges that confront us, but we are also more confident than ever before because our confidence is based on facts.
“Most of the fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa. Our partnerships with BRICS countries and the rest of the world are of great importance,” he added.
Motsepe said at the centre of economic growth for South Africa and the continent are enabling policies that encourage trade and investment between BRICS countries as well as intra-trade as promoted by the Africa Free Trade Agreements.
He said it would be futile to have policies that did not translate to the free flow of goods and services.
“We need to focus on the detail and the totality of this. We need to identify specific opportunities in specific industries and sectors and look at which opportunities best help us create jobs and improve the living conditions of our people. He said China was the contributor to the bulk of trade and services found on the continent.
“The trade between SA and China was about 28 billion in 2013, and Brics was 300 billion. The trade between SA and China has increased, and the potential is to get us to 600 billion. The same applies with SA and Brazil and other BRICS countries,” he said.
The founder of African Rainbow Minerals said things had changed and were progressing as South Africa had also increased its export of goods to China after years of importing the bulk of its goods from the Asian country with one of the biggest manufacturing exports to the rest of the world.
“We used to import more goods from China but now our exports to China surpass our imports. If the other parties benefit and the other ones do not benefit, then that relationship is not mutually beneficial.
“At the heart of a mutually beneficial relationship is balancing of trade and investment ties,” he said.
