South Africa needs to build skills: economist

South Africa needs to build its skills to be effective within the Brics group, an economist said on Sunday.

"South Africa's dream of industrialisation is not going to be realised unless it pays attention to and build its human capital," economist Azar Jammine said.

He was speaking at a post-Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) seminar held in Johannesburg. The summit took place in Durban in March.

Sunday's talks were held to establish what South Africa achieved at the Brics summit and to discuss economic development plans.

Jammine said human resources in South Africa and the rest of the continent were lagging behind.

"South Africa at the moment cannot produce enough skills to make inroads into other Brics countries and grab opportunities there. There is no capacity."

The lack of skills in South Africa led to other Brics members exploiting it, Jammine said.

Earlier, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said the country's priority after joining Brics was to promote the integration of the continent and infrastructure development.

Africa needed to move towards industrialisation, said Davies.

Congress of SA Trade Unions president Sidumo Dlamini was expected to speak at the seminar.