Xiamen - President Jacob Zuma has arrived in Xiamen City in China to attend the 9th Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (Brics) summit to be hosted by China from September 3 to 5, the presidency said on Saturday.
The 9th Brics summit would be held under the theme “Brics: Stronger partnership for a brighter future", the presidency said in a statement.
"There has been substantive progress achieved since South Africa joined Brics in 2011. The formation has strengthened its co-operative mechanism for institutional development, most notably witnessed in the creation of the New Development Bank and the recently launched Africa Regional Centre in Johannesburg," it said.
The summit "will build on the past achievements of Brics, by deepening Brics co-operation for common development, strengthening global governance to jointly meet challenges, carry out people-to-people exchanges to support Brics co-operation and make institutional improvements, and build broader partnerships".
"In addition to the issuing of the Xiamen declaration and action plan, new proposals will be explored to further deepen co-operation and to expand the Brics institution-building agenda."
Brics leaders would also engage in a dialogue with emerging markets and developing countries; the invited countries being Egypt, Guinea, Mexico, Tajikistan. and Thailand. The dialogue would be "reflective of trans-continentalism and bring together nations with a focus on the needs of the global south in the context of globalisation and future development".
In 2015, total intra-Brics trade amounted to R3.06 trillion. South Africa’s exports to Brics countries marginally increased from R123 billion in 2011 to R138.2 billion in 2016 while in the same period imports from Brics countries increased from R115 billion to R230 billion. Total Intra-Brics foreign direct investment (FDI) was R554 trillion at the end of February 2016, the presidency said.