Pretoria - South Africa will participate in the inaugural BRICS Trade Fair, which gets underway today in New Delhi, India.
Thirty-three South African companies are expected to showcase their value proposition to businesspeople and investors from the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) bloc ahead of the annual summit of leaders from the respective countries.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) said companies chosen to participate in the trade fair hail from KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Western Cape and Eastern Cape, based on their applications to participate in this programme through the department’s Export, Marketing, and Investment Assistance Scheme (EMIA).
“The BRICS formation aims to offer an alternative to the commonly accepted global political and economic architecture. Strengthening inter-BRICS trade and economic relations will be an important enabler of this alternative narrative.
“The BRICS Business Council Working Group will also convene ahead of the summit. This working group is seized with how to enable the ease of doing business, including matters related to projects that will advance our developmental objectives in agriculture manufacturing, financial services, infrastructure and skills development,” said the dti’s Deputy Director General of Trade and Investment South Africa (TISA), Pumla Ncapayi.
Sectors that will be represented at the trade fair are aligned to South Africa’s Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP), including manufacturing, agro-processing, energy security, mining and capital equipment and technology.
The BRICS Trade Fair is open from today at 10am to 6pm until Friday.
Meanwhile, the leaders’ summit will be held from 15 - 16 October 2016 in Goa. People can follow the conversation at #SAatBRICS2016. – SAnews.gov.za
