Ramaphosa: BRICS preparing for future pandemics
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says BRICS countries have agreed to mobilize the political and financial resources needed to respond to future pandemic preparedness.
This follows South
Africa’s participation in the 13th BRICS summit last week.
Ramaphosa, writing
in his weekly newsletter, hailed the partnership, which he said has reaped the
benefits of economic co-operation and continues to do so, 11 years on.
BRICS
is the acronym for an association of five major emerging national economies:
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa that are all leading developing
or newly-industrialized countries, but they are distinguished by their large,
sometimes fast-growing economies and significant influence on regional affairs;
all five are G-20 members.
The countries are
said to have agreed on the need for mutual recognition of national documents of
vaccination and systems of Covid-19 testing — something vital to cross-border
travel in the future, Ramaphosa said.
As part of future
pandemic preparedness, he said the partners had agreed to establish a virtual
Brics vaccine research and development centre and an integrated early-warning
system to forecast future outbreaks of infectious diseases.
Brics partners agreed
to strengthen collaboration in sectors such as energy, IT, science, technology
and innovation, agriculture and the green economy. “These are all important
sectors identified in our economic reconstruction and recovery plan announced
last year,” Ramaphosa said.
