Durban - More than 100 women business leaders from Brazil, Russia, China and India will join their South African counterparts in Durban this weekend for the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance (WBA) summit.
The WBA summit takes place from August 20 to 21.
Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube said earlier this month that while the main summit would take place in Gauteng, the women in business event was an opportunity to interact with prominent business leaders from the global south.
“There will be 50 women from China, another 50 from the continent, 20 from Russia and others from India and Brazil.
“Women make up more than 50% of the population in the global south and many countries want products that are uniquely African. We want to showcase what South Africa can supply… billions of items can be supplied.”
Professor Anil Sooklal, Ambassador-at-Large for Asia and BRICS and South Africa’s BRICS Sherpa, said the WBA summit would offer networking opportunities to fast-track women in BRICS countries and entrepreneurship.
“South Africa has provided leadership as chair of this year’s summit and Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has proposed that the main summit later this month, have a women’s platform included. This will be the first time that this has been done.”
BRICS heads of state and other leaders from more than 50 countries are expected to attend the main summit later this month.
President Cyril Ramaphosa invited the heads of state of all the BRICS countries and 70 leaders of countries in the global South.
It is expected that at least 50 global South leaders will accept the invite, making this one of the largest global gatherings of leaders.
BRICS leaders Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping are expected in the country while Russia will be led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Sooklal described the summit as being a “tectonic moment in geopolitics”.
“We appreciate all of the relationships we have with countries across the world but it must be noted that BRICS is a powerful global force.
“Over 20 countries have applied to be part of the summit – even European countries have asked to be part of it, including French president Emmanuel Macron.”
He said two-way trade between South Africa and BRICS countries had grown from R340bn in 2013 to more than R800bn last year.
“There are 600 Chinese companies and 400 Indian companies based in South Africa and not only are they creating employment but contributing to the practical advancement of people through skills building.”