Johannesburg 15 May 2023 The IMM Graduate School’s Research Hub will be hosting a webinar panel discussion on the opportunities for business in the BRICS and African Continental Free Trade Area, on Africa Day, 2023. This webinar panel discussion will reflect on South Africa’s chairing of BRICS and its hosting of the 15th Summit under the theme from 22 to 24 August 2023.

With the BRICS Summit in mind (which takes place against the backdrop of significant patterns of change in the global economy and emerging patterns of conflict), the webinar panel will focus on key global economic, market and geopolitical dynamics impacting on the outlook of both developed and developing economies.

The webinar panel will discuss the progress the African Union has made with the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, as well as the successes of the BRICS – looking back at the past fifteen summits.

The aim will be to gather expert input and perspectives on the development of the BRICS as an institution of global governance, in a period of turbulent change in the global system. In this context, the forthcoming BRICS Summit, given its theme, will focus on enhancing interaction and trade between African and BRICS nations. It is noteworthy that in the past year, several countries from Africa and South America expressed their interest in joining the BRICS, for example Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and Argentina.

The webinar panel will interrogate what this means for the BRICS, and what opportunities, if any, it holds for the BRICS, South African business and academic inquiry at the IMM Graduate School.

Date: Thursday, 25 May, 2023

Time: 10:00am – 12:30pm

Venue: Virtual (to be streamed live via the IMM Graduate School LinkedIn page)

Panel composition

• Dr Petrus de Kock –Moderator
• Ms Busi Mabuza – Chair, BRICS Business Council and Industrial Development Corporation
• Dr JJ Tabane – Broadcaster, political analyst and Professor at University of South Africa
• Adm Robert Higgs (ret. SA Navy)
• Ms Helen McIntee – President, African Marketing Confederation
• Mr Elvin Harris – Chairperson: Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (South Africa).

ISSUED ON BEHALF OF IMM GRADUATE SCHOOL RESEARCH HUB

For more information contact:
Lunice Johnston Communications
Lunice Johnston
Mobile: +27 82 824 6384