The BRICS Business Council would like to even out some of the uneven trade patterns that exist, according to Stavros Nicolaou, the head of the council.
South Africa holds the chairmanship in South Africa.
Nicolaou was speaking to Business Report ahead of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit in Johannesburg on August 22-24.
President Cyril Cyril Ramaphosa has invited 60 heads of state to the BRICS summit and 22 have confirmed their attendance.
Nicolaou said South Africa exported more raw materials and imported more finished manufactured goods.
“That is even with the BRICS countries. We would like to see more of our finished products being exported and less of the finished products being imported. We need to even out the trade imbalances that exist,” he said in an interview.
“In the period 2017 to 2021, there has been a 44% growth in trade across the five BRICS countries,” he said.
The council's mandate is to promote and enhance economic growth across the five BRICS countries and to improve trade and investment between the five countries.
Nicolaou said the theme of the conference was Africa and BRICS promoting multilateralism.
“I think what we would like to see is a more integrated approach, meaning Africa, particularly through the African Continental Free Trade Area, pulling Africa into BRICS.
“South Africa is the conduit to the rest of Africa in this instance, in the BRICS instance, so we do have the mandate to leverage the African Continental Free Trade Area to enhance not only South Africa's trade and investment but that more broadly of the continent,” he said.
According to Nicolaou, the third objective was to use the summit as an opportunity to showcase South Africa as an investment destination of relevance.
“As a council, we look at where are the best business investment prospects for South Africa, and that could be east or west, north or south. We don't favour one particular region or one geopolitical sort of set-up. We will look at where are the best opportunities for South Africa,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said the discussion on a BRICS currency was still at its infancy stage.
There has been considerable discussion about a new BRICS currency that could challenge the US dollar as the world's reserve currency or, at the very least, provide an alternative.
However, Nicolaou said this was one of many discussions that were taking place in the financial services working group.
This comes as the ANC last week confirmed that the upcoming BRICS Summit would discuss the proposal of a common currency between the global south countries as part of “de-dollarisation” and strengthening trade.
“We haven’t formed an opinion as yet. It’s very early. There’s a lot more work and discussion that needs to take place before we have some palpable sense of what this must look like. Regardless, it is a conversation that needs to be held, and if it does go ahead it is something that would be some way off. We are monitoring the conversations, we will contribute our input,” he said.
The official announcement about the new currency is expected to be made during the BRICS Summit in August, but its development could be years in the making.
BUSINESS REPORT