South Africa had strong and growing trade and investment ties with the other Brics – Brazil, Russia, India and China – members, particularly China and India, according to a statement released by the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) yesterday.
This was revealed at the seventh meeting of the Brics ministers of trade in Shanghai, China.
As a single country, China had been South Africa’s top ranking export destination as well as import supplier since 2009.
Last year intra-Brics exports amounted to the equivalent of R4 trillion.
China accounted for 40%, India for 27%, Russia for 16%, Brazil for 10%, and South Africa for 7%, the statement said.
Domestic exports destined to Brics countries amounted to R156 billion, while its imports from these four partners came to R273bn.
In 2015/16 intra-Brics investment amounted to R554bn. South Africa received R34.5bn from investors in these countries, while making investment there to the amount of R22.6bn.
The trade ministers discussed a number of issues relating to trade and investment promotion.
They established collaborative mechanisms among Brics countries that were aimed at encouraging information sharing and capacity building.
