The 2024 edition of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) takes place from June 5 to 8. The theme of this year's event is “The foundation of a multipolar world - forming new points of growth”.

There Will be More Women- & Youth-Led Businesses Through BRICS, South African Businessman Says

18:52, 8 June 2024

Rasina Musallimova

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Earlier, Nonkululeko Mantula, Chairperson of the Communications Working Group for BRICS WBA, noted that "BRICS has been [a voice] for women, for men, for children in the Global South."

Sputnik

Through BRICS, there will be more women- and youth-led businesses, co-founder of the Africa Economic Leadership Council, South African businessman Percy Morapedi Koji, told Sputnik Africa.

"We haven't had a lot of women who are highly specialized in engineering, construction, mining, and highly sophisticated sorts of businesses. So we are beginning to see this as a result of the BRICS bloc," he said on the sidelines of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) 2024.

He added that, in the past, BRICS countries didn't have "such a high scale of entrepreneurs," but there is a shift in terms of opportunities that exist in the business sector in the bloc.

"This bloc will contribute to making sure that not only do we have better access in terms of collaboration, but we also increase the number of participants, especially women youth in business," he noted.

In addition, the businessman underlined that BRICS must create its own financial system that will allow its members to "transact just like anybody else."

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"There's nothing wrong with BRICS creating its own currency," which will facilitate trading among its members, he said, citing the European Union and its currency, the euro, as an example.

"People who form collaboration can create what they call a common ground that becomes beneficial for everybody. So we believe that BRICS is part of that opportunity that is going to allow us to collaborate in that sense," he noted on the sidelines of SPIEF 2024.

On Friday, the group chairman of the South African Akani Properties company, Zamani Letjane, also advocated for the creation of the BRICS currency, the bloc's platform of trading.

"For the parties not to come up with their own currency or economic platform, that in itself is a deterrent," Letjane told Sputnik Africa.