Ramaphosa to attend BRICS summit in Brazil

President Cyril Ramaphosa will lead the South Africa delegation to the 11th BRICS Summit to be held in Brasilia, Brazil from 13 - 14 November.

BRICS is an association of five major emerging countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) which together represent about 42% of the global population, 23% of GDP, 30% of the territory and 18% of the global trade. 

The 11th BRICS Summit will be hosted  under the theme  “BRICS: Economic Growth for an Innovative Future.”

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According to a statement by the Presidency, the Summit will be preceded by the BRICS Business Forum where Ramaphosa and other BRICS leaders will interact with the BRICS Business Council to "strengthen dialogue between the BRICS Business Council and BRICS leaders" and "strengthen and promote economic, trade, business and investment ties amongst the BRICS members." 

"South Africa’s membership of BRICS enables the country to employ additional and powerful tools in its fight to address the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality through increased trade, investment, tourism, capacity building, skills and technology transfers," says the Presidency. 

"The objective of the President’s engagement in the BRICS Summit is to contribute to the future direction of BRICS, to strengthen intra-BRICS relations and mutually beneficial cooperation across the four pillars of cooperation, particularly in intra-BRICS trade and investment, as well as to ensure the ongoing implementation of the outcomes of the 10th BRICS Summit hosted in South Africa in 2018."

 While Ramamjphosa attends the summit, the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, to serve as Acting President from Tuesday 12 November to Friday 15 November.