STEVEN KUO: Business must keep one eye on geopolitics, another on Brics expansion
ANC chose to stand against the West, but local firms can benefit by finding other opportunities
SA business executives need to keep abreast of developments in the ever more complex global geopolitical game being played out. There is elevated political risk in China-US competition and the West’s proxy war with Russia in Ukraine. There is elevated sanctions risk through prohibitions on doing business with Russian entities. And new opportunities are emerging as, for better or worse, SA has hitched its wagon to the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, SA) bloc, with other developing countries lining up to join the club.
Headline news now is that the US commerce department has made $53bn available to establish a semiconductor industry on the US mainland. Commerce secretary Gina Raimondo did not mince her words, saying this was to ensure the industry can supply the US military’s modern weapons systems. Companies that receive these funds are barred from expanding their semiconductor manufacturing capacity to “foreign countries of concern”, that is, China...
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