South Africa, as the SADC chair, will host the upcoming SADC ICT Ministers’ Meeting to discuss progress made on the implementation of the SADC Communications and ICT Programme.
Communications Minister Ayanda Dlodlo and Telecommunications and Postal Services Minister Siyabonga Cwele will lead a South African delegation to the four-day meeting, which starts on Monday at Zimbali, Durban.
“The aim of the meeting is to provide guidance on strategic communications and ICT issues and also to track the implementation of decisions made at previous meetings,” Cabinet said in a statement on Friday.
South Africa will use the meeting to promote access to affordable ICT infrastructure services. This will position the country as a regional infrastructure hub and promote small, medium and micro enterprises under the overall SADC industrialisation and regional integration agendas.
9th BRICS Summit
Cabinet also announced that the 9th Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) Summit will take place in Xiamen, China, from 4 - 5 September 2017.
The theme of China’s BRICS chairpersonship is ‘BRICS: Stronger Partnerships for a Brighter Future’.
Total bilateral trade between South Africa and other BRICS countries amounted to US$29 billion in 2016.
South Africa’s biggest export destination within BRICS remains China, followed by India, Brazil and then Russia. The same pattern is also evident in imports, with China remaining the biggest source of imports.
The 2017 BRICS Summit will feature five key priorities, namely deepening cooperation, strengthening global governance, undertaking people-to-people exchanges, advancing institutional improvements and building broader partnerships.
The strategic focus for South Africa in BRICS is to promote value-added trade, attract investment into the country’s productive sectors and enhance cooperation to advance development objectives. – SAnews.gov.za
