One of the focus areas of the first Brics Manufacturing Conference will be progress achieved in priority projects identified by sub-clusters of the Brics Manufacturing Working Group (MWG), following its establishment. The MWG is a working group of the Brics Business Council, which was set up in 2013. (Brics is the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa alignment.)

The conference is scheduled for May 21, and will be based in Johannesburg. Depending on the level of lockdown in force by then, it will either be a virtual summit or a real summit.

“The manufacturing industry’s contribution to the [South African] economy has been declining for the past two decades as a result of cheap imports from Asian economies, lacklustre domestic demand and rising operational and input costs,” highlights South African Brics Business Council Chapter MWG chairman Kaizer Nyatsumba. “It is important, therefore, that domestic manufacturers should not only look beyond our borders if they are to survive and grow, but also be pathfinders of new subsectors, new innovations and new technologies.”

Among the MWG’s priority projects are bio-plastic technologies, electromobility solutions, exponential manufacturing, light passenger aircraft manufacturing, and smart cities. The heads of these various projects will be making reports on their progress at the summit.

Other topics will also be discussed. These will include the relevance of the MWG itself, how local business could better exploit South Africa’s membership of Brics, and the country’s planned new special economic zones.

The main reason for the calling of the conference is to help South Africa’s beleaguered manufacturers take advantaged of the existence of the Brics alignment. “It is against this backdrop that we decided to host the conference, which aims to assist South African manufacturers to take better advantage of the opportunities presented by Brics, amidst the slump that the economy currently finds itself in,” he explains.