Davies said this when he held a joint media briefing with the members of the Black Business Council in Cape Town on Tuesday. BRICS are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The media briefing was held after Davies held a meeting with the newly-appointed council members in the Mother City.
“We had discussions at which we all agreed that the BRICS relationship is an important, strategic relationship for South Africa. It is the most significant grouping of the emerging economies in the world.
“It has the business council which has done invaluable work, in particularly in our estimation, in the promotion of practical business to business relations.
“When we look at the relationship within BRICS, the most important relationship we want to build as government is the investment relationship given that BRICS companies are looking into directing investment into South Africa and, of course, South African companies are also invested into those countries.
“We indicated to them that, as government, we want to have a strong ongoing conversation and coordination with the members of the BRICS Business Council as they identify practical business opportunities. As they make recommendations, we want to make sure that there is a strong Team South Africa message that is finding its way through,” he said.
The BRICS Business Council has five members with extensive business experience — Busi Mabuza from the Industrial Development Corporation will chair it; Ayanda Ntsaluba from Discovery Ltd; Bridgette Radebe from Mmakau Mining; Stavros Nicolaou from Aspen Pharmacare, and Elias Monage from Afrika Group.