BRICS is the acronym for an association of 5 major emerging global economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The initial four countries constituted “BRIC”, but with the addition of South Africa 2010, it graduated to “BRICS”, the grouping consisting of all leading developing or newly industrialised countries globally. However, several new countries have since made applications to join BRICS, namely United Arab Emirates; Saudia Arabia, Ethiopia, Iran and Egypt.
The BRIC grouping of countries have been characterised by their fast growing and huge economies and resultant impact they have had globally. BRICS countries have since 2009 met formally on an annual basis at global summits. BRICS countries according to Goldman Sachs are G20 members, and by 2050, the initial four founding BRICS members will emerge as the leading economies internationally. BRICS countries since 2015 are representative of a global population that exceeds 3.6 million people or almost 40% of the world populace. BRICS unlike the European Union is not a political coalition, but they can emerge as a powerful economic/trading block if need be. The principles of equality, mutual benefit and non – interference govern their bilateral relations.
The general citizenry, private and the nongovernmental sector have all played an increasingly significant role of late in transforming local spaces to enhance service delivery, due to poor public governance. This has in turn signified a gradual move away from the state sector which was previously the sole provider of public services. The result effect is that the notion of partnership has been placed high on the governmental agenda and key to that process is enhanced state society relations which involves and includes inter alia, co – operation, collaboration, deregulation, outsourcing and shared services.
The BRICS Panel will examine progress on alternative service delivery in selected BRICS countries globally. More specifically, it will focus on : what prompted the need for alternatively service delivery; the current governance framework; progress that has been made to date; challenges experienced and possible solutions in terms of moving the process forward.
There will be 5 panelists and each of them will be given 10 – 12 minutes each for their presentations, and thereafter the session will be open for points of clarity, observations and questions.
The Panel will be chaired by Prof P S Reddy, a Professor in the Graduate School of Business and Leadership and Emeritus Professor in the School of Management, IT and Governance at the University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban, South Africa.
