By Bhekisisa Mncube
Durban –The KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government is to host the 3rd BRICS Co-operatives Summit in October in Durban - a first for South Africa.
MEC for Economic Development and Tourism, Mike Mabuyakhulu, said the main objectives of the summit are to facilitate and announce concrete business collaboration between co-operatives in BRICS countries and to share information on the latest co-operative trade and economic policies. BRICS is the acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
He said delegates at the summit will also negotiate and agree on the implementation structure for the Memorandum of Understanding signed in Beijing, China in 2011 and to facilitate collaboration in the areas of skills development and technology transfer amongst co-operatives in BRICS countries.
Mabuyakhulu was delivering opening remarks at the International Day of Co-Operatives event at the ICC in Durban on Saturday.
As a precursor to the BRICS Co-operatives Summit, the province will hold its own Co-operative Summit on 13 August.
“In our province, the co-operatives provided a soft landing cushion for hundreds of workers who had been retrenched or whose factories had folded as a result of the then adverse global economic conditions,” he said.
He said generally social enterprises like co-operatives were more susceptible to economic turbulences. He said he feared that when the global economic downturn hit that the cooperatives would suffer the most damage.
“We were therefore, pleasantly surprised to notice that, notwithstanding some cooperatives closing shop because of adverse global economic conditions, the majority of our co-operatives were able to survive and even thrive.”
Their survival and growth was attributed to their adherence and strict application of principles which guide this form of business. “This was also as a result of the efforts that we, as government, put into supporting the cooperative movement at this critical time,” said the MEC. – SAnews.gov.za
