DURBAN, July (ANA) – The business council of the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) economic bloc launched the BRICS 2018 Skills Challenge at Greyville in Durban on Saturday night.
The first skills challenge was held in China last year. Open to those between the ages of 18 and 35, the challenge will focus on “skills of the future”, and will see young innovators from member states competing to deadlines over two days in the areas of cyber security, data analytics, automation, industrial robotics, 3D printing, drone technology, and other future skills in the engineering, digital, manufacturing, and transport sectors.
The 2018 skills challenge is set to run from September 28 to October 8 in Johannesburg and has the support of various government departments and business partners.
Speaking at the launch, South African Deputy Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela said he hoped the ideas that emerged from the event would not only be spectacular but would focus on the needs of humanity and enable tangible solutions to problems faced by community members within BRICS member states.
Many technological improvements stemmed from a desire to enhance military power. “We have to encourage those taking part in the BRICS future skills challenge to ignore the war component,” he said.
Dr Iqbal Survé, who chairs the BRICS Business Council, said the challenge was an opportunity for member states to showcase the talents of their youth and to encourage the skills needed to power the fourth industrial revolution.
BRICS countries made up 41 percent of the world's population, and within that grouping, almost 60 percent were under the age of 35.
“As we approach the fourth industrial revolution, it becomes increasingly important to skill-up our young people, in particular, to participate in the economic system, which is being promulgated by the fourth industrial revolution,” he said.
Survé said he was optimistic about Africa and South Africa because they had youthful populations, “and young people in the world today means gold”. But they needed to be “skilled-up” even if this was not through formal education. The fourth economic revolution was a “very real economic revolution”.
“I don’t think we should allow the economic platforms that are being built in the fourth industrial revolution to be owned exclusively by countries such as the US and even China. We have to take control of our own platforms,” Survé said.
The BRICS Business Council meets on Sunday and Monday at the International Convention Centre in Durban.
- African News Agency (ANA)
