Patel: BRICS expansion offers larger trade pool
Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel believes the decision to expand BRICS will boost the bloc's global influence.
He was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the BRICS summit, which drew to a close in Sandton on Thursday.
Patel said the expansion also means a bigger trading pool.
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"It enlarges the markets, and that's very important. More than 400 million additional consumers come in, but it also brings in new ideas, raw material and resources and new technologies."
The group of emerging economies announced the admission of six new countries.
Patel says each nation's development plan needs to be protected.
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"We need a world that is fair, and we are able to achieve what we do by cooperating.
"BRICS is not an exclusive party. We don't only want to trade and invest in each other. We want a system where the world trades with each other and invests with each other.”
