The BRICS Business Council says it has adopted a trade and investment promotion statement aimed at increasing intra-BRICS trade. The various chapters of the council say this is a 10-year plan of action that includes enhancing trade through bilateral agreements and the exploration of value chain opportunities.
Intra-BRICS trade is said to have been growing at an annual average of 7% over the past 10 years. Other plans aimed at ramping up trade within the BRICS group include developing a BRICS calendar for trade and investment promotional events.
BRICS accounted for 7% of global trade in the year 2000 and has grown to about 30% of global trade currently.
The BRICS business council says there is scope for more growth. It says work has been done to identify intra-BRICS sector networks, promote trade missions and showcase investment projects.
The group says a so-called AIR-LIFT strategy is also on the cards to promote connectivity and trade between the member countries.
“We have proposed what we call an airlift strategy. An airlift strategy will be a comprehensive plan to make sure that we have an air connection between the BRICS countries because without an air connection there is no flow of passengers, there is no flow of tourism. That negatively impacts tourism, it affects cargo, it affects particularly the business people who are travelling for business, investing and doing trade,” says José Serrador Neto, BRICS business council, Brazil.
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The South African chapter says the next wave of global growth will come from Africa. This is as the continent diversifies and beneficiates its natural resources to take advantage of opportunities presented by the African Continental Free Trade Area and BRICS relations.
“We have now created a model for the world that moves us away from an extractive approach in terms of economic engagement towards a collaborative approach where we can all benefit and why this is important for the African continent. We have the resources in abundance still in our continent, be it the human capital in terms of the youth that we have, be it the minerals resources or other natural resources,” says Busi Mabuza, BRICS business council, South Africa.
Business people attending the conference welcomed the opportunities presented by BRICS.
“The air-lift strategy in a nutshell is a strategy that seeks to connect the five members of BRICS. But if you get the other applicants if BRICS approved, of course, the pool of the connection grows quite substantially,” a business person explains.
“We saw a number of MOUs signed which again talks to the value that is emanating from the bilateral and multilateral agreements, we are happy with the progress,” another business person says.
“When you look at BRICS and the mobility and the freight cross border trade, the ease of doing things in Africa, I am sure with the partners like India, Brazil, China, and Russia when coming together we know that Africa is going to be a powerhouse,” a business person reiterates.
The South African BRICS business chapter says focus needs to be placed on infrastructure development to enable Africa to improve intra-Africa trade.
