The African Rainbow Minerals chair and inaugural chair of the South African chapter of the Brics Business Council, Patrice Motsepe, says Africa needs to position itself as a market that creates products that the other Brics nations value.
The billionaire was addressing the 15th annual Brics Summit in Johannesburg on Tuesday. The meeting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa is expected to take the bloc’s ambitions, to reshape the global economy, to the next level.
Motsepe said it was up to Africa to prove to the world that it can conduct relations that a mutually beneficial and valuable. He said the African continent was poised to cultivate economic ties characterised by value rather than aid.
“The amount of intra-Africa trade is increasing significantly. The relationships with India, Brazil and China are important. In 2023, we asked the Brics countries to focus on the industries they wanted to grow and enhance,” said Motsepe.
Motsepe said since Brics’ inception, the working groups of the bloc understood that great potential for meaningful partnerships was possible. He said South Africa had an advantage due to its highly regarded institutions and leaders.
“SA CEOs are world-class. They are some of the best in the world. I go to Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Tanzania, and I see South African companies there. I see Brics companies, but I feel the private sector needs to indicate to the government the conditions that they need,” he said.
Asked if he believed that African leaders lacked political will, Motsepe said the continent had no shortage of ideas or desire to implement them. However, he said that co-ordinated implementation would help redefine Africa’s role in the global economy.
Motsepe mentioned the African Continental Free Trade Area, which hopes to turn the African continent into the world’s largest free trade area with a consumer base of 1.3-billion people and an estimated R565bn in export potential and the potential to lift up to 50-million Africans out of poverty.
We don’t have time for talkshops. That is why I seldom go to meetings, conferences ... this Brics partnership has to translate into quantifiable trade ideas.
— Patrice Motsepe, chair of the SA chapter of the Brics Business Council
He said opportunities are immense to grow trade and investment ties within the Brics countries, and called for a sense of urgency and a “pragmatic policy implementation” to realise the opportunities.
“We don’t have time for talk shops. That is why I seldom go to meetings, conferences ... this Brics partnership has to translate into quantifiable trade ideas.”
The Brics trade bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA accounts for 42% of the world’s population, 27% of global GDP and about 20% of international trade.
The Brics economies accounted for about 21.3% of SA’s total trade with the world in 2022, of which China accounted for 67.6%, India 26.5%, Brazil 4.2% and Russia 1.7%, according to data from the Industrial Development Corporation.
SA’s overall trade with its Brics partners increased by an average 10% from 2017 to 2021.
International relations and co-operation minister Naledi Pandor said total SA trade with Brics reached R830bn in 2022 from R487bn in 2017.
“Trade with China remains the dominant force but the share of other Brics partners also increased by 10% from 2021 to 2022,” Pandor said.
— Additional reporting by Luyolo Mkentane, BusinessLIVE
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