27 January 2014
The first Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) ministerial meeting on science, technology and innovation will take place in Kleinmond in the Western Cape from 10 to 11 February, the Department of Science and Technology announced last week.
Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom will host the two-day event, which will be attended by science ministers from the BRICS countries. The meeting is one of the activities agreed to at the 5th BRICS summit held in Durban last year.
According to the department, the ministers will table a memorandum of understanding aimed at strengthening cooperation between the five countries in science, technology and innovation.
The memorandum will also commit the countries to seeking to tackle common socio-economic challenges “through appropriate funding and investment instruments, using shared experiences and complementarities, the co-generation of new knowledge and innovative products, services and processes, and promoting joint BRICS partnerships with other strategic actors in the developing world”.
On the second day of the event, the BRICS ministers will visit the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) site in Carnarvon in the Northern Cape, where the MeerKAT radio telescope, a precursor to the SKA, is being constructed.
SAinfo reporter
