National and provincial government officials dealing with cooperatives and national cooperatives leaders will gather at the Kopano Nokeng Country Lodge Conference Centre in Bloemfontein from tomorrow to Friday to prepare for the 3rd BRICS Cooperatives Leaders Meeting that will be hosted by South Africa in Cape Town in October this year.
The President of the South African National Apex Cooperative (SANACO), Mr Lawrence Bale and the Acting Head of Department at the Free State Provincial Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Mr Mogokare Seleke will address the opening session of the workshop.
According to the Chief Director of Cooperatives Development at the Department of Trade and Industry (the DTI) Mr Jeffrey Ndumo, the purpose of the workshop is to discuss various aspects related to the successful hosting of the historic meeting which will be attended by leading cooperatives leaders from the BRICS member countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
“The meeting will be the first for South Africa and we are not sparing any effort to ensure that the historic occasion does not only become a success but also produce positive spin-offs for our cooperatives. We want to ensure that South Africa’s membership of the BRICS block also benefits our cooperatives.
Therefore it is imperative that all stakeholders gather in a workshop like the one taking place in Bloemfontein to brainstorm ways and means in which cooperatives can take advantage of trade and investments opportunities presented by our BRICS membership and extend their markets to the other four countries,” says Ndumo.
He adds that issues that participants at the workshop will discuss include the state of cooperatives in the four other BRICS countries and potential trade and investment opportunities that the South African cooperatives can explore. The strength, capacity and readiness of the South African cooperatives in exporting products in various sectors to other countries or establishing international partnerships and joint ventures will also be discussed.
“The workshop will also fine-tune the terms of reference for the meeting’s three commissions. These will be trade, investment and business collaboration, collaboration on capacity building and improved sustainability, as well as funding models for cooperatives and BRICS Cooperatives Coordinating and Implementation Structure,” adds Ndumo.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe,departmental spokesperson
Tel: 012 394 1650
Cell: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
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