Ramaphosa sees more to gain from Brics as he gears up for Leaders’ Summit
President Cyril Ramaphosa will join the virtual fourteenth Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa ) Leaders’ Summit, on Thursday, hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Ramaphosa hopes to strengthen South Africa’s ties with the Brics countries, particularly for job creation. He highlighted the gains from the partnership in trade, tourism, health and food security. More than 17% of South Africa’s exports in 2021 were destined for other Brics countries and over 29% of South Africa’s total imports came from these countries. South African trade with other Brics countries reached R702-billion in 2021 up from R487-billion in 2017. Pre-pandemic, 65% of tourists travelling on vacation to South Africa were from Brics countries, according to Ramaphosa. “…these markets will therefore be expected to make an important contribution to the recovery of this sector. It is therefore significant that visitors from India and China can now make use of our new eVisa programme to make it easier and less costly to visit our country,” he said. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Brics countries have collaborated in the health response, which Ramaphosa believes has put South Africa in a good position to deal with future health emergencies.