South African Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies said on Tuesday that partnerships fostered by South Africa, Brazil, China, India, Russia and India (BRICS) will go a long way in boosting the growth of trade and industrialization in the African continent.

Davies was speaking at the BRICS Business Forum that was hosted by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Center in Durban.

The forum was attended by business people from all the five BRICS countries.

"The Importance of BRICS can never be overemphasized. From the South African perspective, we have seen significance growth in trade and economic relations with bricks countries. Trade between South Africa and other BRICS countries has grown from 11.6 percent to 27 percent. We are currently having 31 projects by 25 companies located in BRICS countries totalling R12, 6 billion," said Davies. He added that the benefits of South Africa's partnerships with the BRICS countries are poised to lead to more industrialization and integration in continent. "The African continent is recognized as the second fastest growing continent after Asia. There are four drivers of the economic growth in African continent. These are the boom in mineral products in the African continent, the development of the service industries, fuelled by amongst others the embracement of ICT in Africa, the benefit of not having financial the crisis, and infrastructure development," said Davies.

Davies said African leaders were currently talking about how industrialization would drive the next wave of African economic development.

"Other BRICS countries have advantage of large populations providing big domestic markets for their products. The South African population is small compared to other BRICS countries, but if you add up numbers on continent then you have a critical mass that can support the new industrial wave in Africa. That is why we need achieve the African integration in order to create large trading blocks across large parts of African continent," said Davies.

The pesidents of Business Unity South Africa and Black Business Council, Jabu Mabuza and Ndaba Ntsele, as well as presidents of business federations from other BRICS countries expressed confidence in the organization, indicated businesspeople should work together in order to increase intra-BRICS trade and investment. Endi

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