S Africa says committed to BRICS membership

South Africa is committed to the BRICS bloc of leading emerging economies and hopes being a member helps address the country's various challenges, a senior official said Thursday.

While addressing a seminar in Pretoria on Thursday, Dave Malcomson, chief director at South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation, said the country is satisfied with the progress achieved by the bloc and wants to continue using it to address the country's triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

Malcomson said BRICS will assist the industrialization process in South Africa and the whole African continent by supporting infrastructure, investment facilitation and an upgrade of the manufacturing sector.

"We want to use BRICS to promote South South cooperation, change global architecture, respond to global challenges and bring about peace in the world," he added.

China will host the 2017 BRICS Summit in September as the current chair. The bloc will discuss global economic growth, promote cooperation and development then.

Noting that BRICS members, namely, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, have coordinated and cooperated in multilateral global bodies over major global issues such as climate change, Malcomson said the bloc will always remain relevant to global affairs.