South African trade with the BRICS member-states in 2022 enhanced by 70% in five years, the head of state Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday.
"Total South African trade with other BRICS countries reached $43 billion in 2022, which represents an increase of more than 70% from $25 billion in 2017," the president noted.
He also emphasized that reinforcement of economic and financial partnership between BRICS countries is "one of the key pillars of its cooperation."
Along with strengthening economic ties, BRICS membership helps South Africa to develop in other areas such as investment, trade, tourism, capacity building, skills and technological capabilities, the leader stressed.
As for investments, the group contributes to the country's growth in a number of fields, including clean energy, information technologies and others, Ramaphosa emphasized, adding that these investments facilitate job creation.
"BRICS is an important source of foreign direct investment in key areas such as mining, automotive, transportation, clean energy, financial services and IT. These investments and projects lead to significant job creation," he underlined.
In addition, the president highlighted that the organization's New Development Bank financed "12 projects in South Africa to the value of over $5 billion."
Moreover, according to the leader, the bloc promoted the implementation of the country's Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, especially in terms of tourism and energy security.
"The BRICS countries are becoming increasingly important tourism markets for South Africa. In terms of supporting energy security in South Africa, another pillar of our recovery plan, BRICS countries have the expertise and technologies to support energy cooperation," Ramaphosa noted.
As an example of the bloc's contribution to the energy sector, the president cited a Road Map for BRICS Energy Cooperation up to 2025, which was adopted by the member-states in 2020 and "aims to build a strategic partnership in energy cooperation."
Apart from the adopted road map, the African country benefits from bilateral energy cooperation with BRICS members. For instance, on August 16, Russia and South Africa discussed a joint project for the construction of a gas power plant and supplies of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) for new generating capacities to the African state.
Furthermore, during the summit, an agreement with China's largest grid operator on renewable energy cooperation was signed. The pact concerned donation to South Africa of some solar and battery units for use in public facilities, local media revealed.
Commenting on the benefits for the African country from the expansion of the group, Ramaphosa stressed that the approval of the six new countries' applications for membership in the organization will improve South Africa's cooperation with them "in political, economic and financial matters" and other sectors.
"These countries will enhance economic partnership in key sectors such as oil and energy, telecommunication and information technology, agriculture, textile, logistics, air transportation and tourism and medicine," he emphasized.
During the summit, the organization's members have endorsed the inclusion of Argentina, Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as new members of the group. Their full participation in the bloc will officially start from January.
Along with the expansion of the group, Ramaphosa also underlined other "major" outcomes of the summit, namely the states' decision to put forward a reform of the UN to make it more 'democratic' and the decision to examine the possibility to use various countries’ local currencies in international trade.