PRETORIA, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- The South African government on Monday said the preparations for the BRICS summit are going on well in consultations with other partners in the bloc.
Ambassador Anil Sooklal, deputy Director General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), said this on Monday while addressing the media in Pretoria.
The BRICS summit of five major emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will be held in Johannesburg on July 25-27.
He said the country has already circulated their calender program to the BRICS partners.
Sooklal said they have shared the agenda with the BRICS members and could not disclose it until it has been approved by other partners.
"The preparations for the summit are moving on well," said Sooklal.
He stated that South Africa have been preparing for this summit in the past two years.
South Africa would like countries of the South to create a vaccine research centre to avoid being recipients of countries of the North for those products, said Sooklal.
"We want to formalize cooperation on gender and women empowerment. We also want to focus on the challenges and opportunities presented by the fourth industrial revolution," Sooklal said. "We want to collectively how we can benefit each other and find ways to limit the challenges of the disruptive technologies."
Sooklal stated that they will continue advancing the African agenda and the South-South cooperation.
South Africa assumed BRICS chairmanship on January 1 and will relinquish the post in December this year.
