Durban hailed as Brics summit host
Leaders of the Brics economic bloc of emerging nations; from left; Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff; Russian President Dmitry Medvedev; India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh; Chinese President Hu Jintao; and SA's President Jacob Zuma seen at the Brics Summit in New Delhi, India. The fifth Brics Summit will take place in Durban next year. Picture: Reuters Leaders of the Brics economic bloc of emerging nations; from left; Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff; Russian President Dmitry Medvedev; India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh; Chinese President Hu Jintao; and SA's President Jacob Zuma seen at the Brics Summit in New Delhi, India. The fifth Brics Summit will take place in Durban next year. Picture: Reuters
The announcement that Durban will host the first Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA) summit next year has been hailed by local business and tourism bosses as a major coup for the city.
The summit brings together the heads of state of the economic bloc of emerging nations as well as government and business delegations from the member countries.
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Zweli Mkhize announced that Durban would be hosting the Brics summit when he spoke to 250 captains of industry at the annual KZN Growth Coalition business breakfast in Durban last week.
Tourism KwaZulu-Natal chief executive Ndabo Khoza said hosting the event was “huge” in terms of international profile and it would see the heads of state of the Brics member countries assembling in SA for the first time.
“It’s also the first time that it will be held in Africa and comes a year after SA was admitted to the influential economic bloc of emerging nations. The other Brics countries are important to SA, not just for trade and economic partnerships, but [as] emerging tourism source markets,” he said.
“We are getting more and more tourists from these countries, especially India and China… In October, KZN will be hosting the Travel Agents Federation of India conference, which will bring more than 1 000 leading Indian travel professionals to Durban,” said Khoza.
Mkhize said President Jacob Zuma had asked the province to host the event. He said Durban had proved itself by hosting several major international conferences, including the UN COP17 climate change conference.
“International summits like the Brics summit provide excellent marketing opportunities… Apart from being festivals of ideas, these gatherings present an opportunity to promote regional, continental and international trade integration,” he said.
The Brics summit is not going to be as huge in scale as COP17, but it boasts a high international profile.
It is unclear how many delegates are expected for the fifth Brics summit, but the presence of five heads of state from Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA will see a large security operation. Department of International Relations spokesman, Clayson Monyela, said the summit would take place in March next year.
Moses Tembe, co-chairman of the KZN Growth Coalition, welcomed the news and urged local and SA business to participate.
“This must not be just another big event… business must participate, network, and secure trade and partnership opportunities with their Brics counterparts. We all need to work together to… derive real benefits from the Brics economic bloc.”