MARK BARNES: Let’s use the Brics summit to score some deals

Last weekend the Springboks gave the Welsh Dragons a (56-12) “klap” in their “friendly” match at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

Several of these friendlies are set to take place in Europe over the next couple of weeks before the start of the Rugby World Cup on September 8. The plan is to acclimatise, try out players and combinations, sort out (while hopefully avoiding) injuries and, finally, choose the squad to compete for the World Cup.

Selection is objective. There can be no favouritism, no excuses, no exceptions, no places for pals. We play to our strengths. This is the World Cup, the pinnacle of international rugby competition. We have to field our best side, and the time for friendlies is all but over. Our motivation is clear and unambiguous, founded in common purpose and national pride.

We know what we have to do. SA, like all countries in one way or another, has its own specific requirements and boundaries within which it has to operate (if the sport is to thrive locally). But we also know (within those guidelines and imperatives) what we have to deliver to win on the world stage. It’s not a popularity contest.

The circumstances, and therefore the requirements, are not much different when we think about being able to compete in world trade. Play to your strengths, put your best foot forward. Capital (particularly international free capital) has choice, most often exercised objectively with cautious discretion and clear goals (returns) in mind. Capital is not romantic. 

As I write this we’re hosting a geopolitical tournament (of sorts) in our own backyard. The prize is so much bigger than winning a trophy, and yet it seems less clear where we’re going with Brics. There’s a rush of enthusiasm, with somewhere between 30 and 40 heads of state pitching up (good weather is forecast), and 20-something new countries in various stages of applying to join the bloc. I wonder whether Gaucho Marx would be persuaded? 

There can be no doubt that the geopolitical landscape is shifting, or more likely rifting, so where do we plan to fit in? Our president has it that we’ve “resisted pressure to align ourselves with any one of the global powers or within influential blocs of nations”, and further that we support an expanded Brics membership, with the aim of “creating a more balanced world order”. Bold indeed.

All the while “our country is committed to a policy of non-alignment” — hardly a foundation for binding partnerships. SA is a member of the G20, where most biggish countries seem welcome, and it has in the past participated as a guest at meetings of the G7, which includes the US, UK, Japan and Europe but excludes Russia, China and India.

Do we see ourselves (and does anyone else see us?) as central to world debates, or do we just want to stay friends with everyone, just in case? Surely focus, purpose and a defined endgame are necessary to achieve anything beyond the impotent acquiescence we’ve seen so far from business at home. Everybody’s friend is nobody’s friend.

Let’s rather seek specific outcomes, alliances and bilateral trade agreements, within a clear policy framework. One for instance might be that we insist on greater participation in the downstream economics of our natural resources and manufacturing capacity. We’re simply giving away too much value-added margin. But are we not getting beyond ourselves in wanting a common (or should we say lowest common denominator) currency. Who’d agree? Who’d prevail? 

The original goals at the genesis of the Brics idea included co-operation and development among countries then at similar stages of “newly advanced” economic development. Although the idea may still be virtuous, that state no longer holds true across the current membership. 

The more lofty goal of having an influence in world affairs remains a tad over-ambitious. Let’s just do some deals, attract some long-term foreign direct investment and make some money. 

• Barnes is an investment banker with more than 35 years’ experience in various capacities in the financial sector.