South Africa no longer wants to be just a consumer of hi-tech and innovative products. It wants to play an active role in technological research & development to produce such products locally. 

This was said by communications and digital technologies minister Mondli Gungubele, who will host communication ministers from the Brics countries in Cape Town on Monday and Friday. The Brics members are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The meeting is a precursor to the much-awaited Brics summit in Johannesburg from August 22 to 24.

Speaking ahead of the meetings at Cape Town International Convention Centre, Gungubele said his department would promote the rapid deployment and rollout of infrastructure, including promoting a connected Africa.

“On expansion and development of transformative technologies, South Africa will push for all member states to benefit from the research & development of these technologies. The country wants to be a player in the development of these technologies and not to be a mere consumer of technologies developed elsewhere,” he said.

“On internet governance and cyber security, the country’s goal is to achieve co-operation among all Brics countries for an open and secure internet,” he said. 

South Africa assumed the chairship of Brics on January 1, taking over from China. As a result, it will host the 15th Brics summit, which is an international relations conference of the member states.

As a forerunner to the summit, a number of Brics meetings are scheduled for South Africa.

Gungubele said previous meetings of this nature asserted the significant role of digital technologies in areas of large-scale e-governance platforms, including artificial intelligence (AI), big data and “harnessing data for development as well as increasing the effectiveness of the Brics countries’ response to the challenges brought about by the Covid pandemic”.

Brics remains a strategic platform for South Africa’s foreign policy objectives. In the department, one of the key strategic objectives is to advance South Africa’s national ICT interests in regional and international forums towards attaining partnerships for economic growth and development.

“It is for this reason that the hosting of this year’s meeting of communications ministers is so important. Previous meetings also resolved to encourage wider access to digital platforms and technologies, and for affordable access by citizens of Brics countries to information and communication.” 

Among the expected areas of discussion is digital inclusion, expansion and development of transformative technologies as well as internet governance and security.

“On digital inclusion, South Africa’s view is that the country is not an island, and the country’s membership of Brics must serve to consolidate its relations with the rest of the continent,” said Gungubele.

TimesLIVE