Forging academic ties on BRICS agenda
THE measure of the BRICS collaboration is to what degree the five member countries were effecting change, says Higher Education and Training Minister Naledi Pandor.
She spoke during the opening session of the third annual BRICS Network University (NU) conference at Stellenbosch University yesterday.
Over three days about 158 delegates from these five countries, representing 36 universities and 11 other higher education institutions, will hold workshops under the theme “Unlocking BRICS Universities’ Partnerships: Postgraduate Education Opportunities and Challenges”.
The conference aims to develop and consolidate the BRICS education agenda. It has six thematic areas: energy; computer science and information security; ecology and climate change; economics; water resources and pollution treatment; and BRICS studies.
Pandor said BRICS NU could be a driving force for building a closely knit BRICS intellectual community.
Her message to delegates as they prepared for the workshops was to think critically about practical action. “BRICS is about action. It was not established as talkshops but to use the various attributes of each of the five countries, draw on each others’ strengths, and address each others’ weaknesses to bring our combined influence to bear in changing the world.”
She said BRICS NU could foster new dynamics in SouthSouth co-operation while forging intellectual bonds and exchanges among the BRICS academic community.
The conference will also explore the possibilities of leveraging the co-operative force of BRICS UN to enhance scientific knowledge.
The objective was to provide a platform for BRICS countries, particularly the international thematic groups (ITGs), to share research experiences and country-specific insights.
“I hope that our universities will take full advantage of this initiative and seek opportunities to collaborate in terms of research, and in doing so learn as much as possible from one another. I hope universities will come up with collaborative projects that will benefit not only BRICS but the developing world as a whole.”
The minister will host the BRICS ministers of education on July 10.
THE ministers of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa, met in Magaliesburg,on Wednesday. Take note of the following:
The global economy is demonstrating positive signs of economic recovery, with output growth accelerating to nearly 4%. BRICS countries continue to play an important role as engines of economic growth. The recovery from the financial crisis that rocked the global economy a decade ago has been long and uncertain. Although the outlook for global growth does appear brighter, certain risks remain.
In the context of a generally positive global trend, emerging markets and developing economies have become increasingly important in the global economy, making progressively higher contributions to global output, trade and investment. These economies now account for a significant amount of global gross domestic product compared with the previous two decades.
The New Industrial Revolution (Fourth Industrial Revolution) and the drive for sustainable, less carbon- and waste-intensive production is, and will have, profound disruptive impacts on the structure of global production, trade, investment, employment and education. Quantum leaps in technology and innovation are and will carry both enormous potential opportunities and benefits for industrial development but also carry significant challenges for broader, inclusive socio-economic growth and development, especially for developing countries.
These opportunities and challenges will call for new hi-tech-driven innovative policy and regulatory frameworks by individual member countries and closer mutually beneficial and collaborative efforts, including new and existing multilateral mechanisms of co-operation to secure equitable and inclusive growth.
As was noted in the 2017 Hangzhou BRICS Industry Ministers Meeting’s Action Plan for deepening industrial co-operation among BRICS countries, all the BRICS member countries are in the process of implementing their own industrial development strategies in order to strengthen and build their respective industrial capabilities.
In this context, the action plan of this third BRICS Industry Ministers Meeting seeks to build on previously adopted directions and further expand industrial co-operation to secure mutually beneficial outcomes in an increasingly complex global environment.
The BRICS industry ministers resolved to implement the BRICS Economic Partnership Strategy to secure mutually beneficial accelerated economic and industrial growth among member states, including placing further and concrete emphasis on the strengthening of business-to-business contacts in all the respective BRICS member countries and supporting the implementation of specific initiatives and projects in various fields and across a variety of industrial sectors.
The ministers meeting further resolved:
To establish the BRICS partnership on the New Industrial Revolution (PartNIR) that aims to translate the vision of the second Golden Decade of BRICS co-operation into reality through deepened BRICS co-operation on industrialisation, innovation, inclusiveness and investment.
Under the partnership, in support of the manufacturing sectors, a new industrial revolution advisory group comprised of policymakers and experts from all BRICS countries will be established.
The advisory group will develop terms of reference and a work plan.
In the context of the New Industrial Revolution, (it will) determine key common areas of focus, including but not limited to:
Policy co-ordination in the context of New Industrial Revolution.
Opportunities for co-operation in advanced technical skills and training.
Exchange of information and best practices with respect to digitisation. Capacity building. Projects which secure inclusive and equitable growth.
Co-operation with stakeholders for greater synergy of human and financial resources.
The advisory group will work closely with BRICS Business Council (BBC) in order to encourage the involvement and participation of the private sector in BBC working groups to accelerate mutually beneficial industrial co-operation across a wide variety of industrial and manufacturing sectors.
In keeping with the objectives set out in the BRICS Economic Co-operation Strategy, the advisory group will work on the implementation of existing co-operation projects, making full use of experiences of member states.
We, the ministers of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa, resolved to further strengthen existing collaborative and mutually beneficial efforts and projects in the industrial development arena, taking into account contemporary challenges related among others to global digital transformation, the imperative for sustainable economic development and the necessity to address the challenge of equitable and inclusive economic growth and industrialisation. – Issued by the Department of Trade and Industry