Africa

Africa

South African official says BRICS summit preparations at advanced stage

04 March 2013 20:17 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The South African government announced on Monday that preparations for the upcoming 5th BRICS Summit are at advanced stage, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"At this point, preparations are at advanced stage for the 5th BRICS Summit. From the substance and logistic perspective, we are satisfied with the state of readiness," said Ebrahim Ebrahim, South Africa's Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation.

The official stressed that the South African government is confident that "the summit will be a great success."

The 5th BRICS Summit will be held in the southeastern port city of Durban from March 26 to 27 under the theme "BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Development, Integration and Industrialization."

It will be the first time for South Africa to hold the BRICS summit since it officially became a membership of the group on Dec. 24, 2010, following formal invitation by the BRIC nations to join the group. BRICS is an acronym for the grouping of the world's leading emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, with them collectively holding reserves of 4.5 trillion U.S.dollars.

The first BRICS summit took place in Russia in 2009, and the second one was held in Brazil in 2010, while the third and fourth ones were hosted in China and India in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

The South African government is hosting national roadshows across the country to raise the awareness over the importance of the BRICS and its membership.

The South African official BuaNews agency on Monday said the country will host the summit with the aim of harnessing its membership to benefit the entire African continent.

"South Africa's position going into the summit is to align BRICS member countries' interests in supporting the integration agenda in Africa," said the agency.