Cairo - Trade volume between Egypt and BRICS countries (Brazil- Russia- India- China- South Africa) during 2016 reached $20 billion, Minister of Trade Tarek Kabil said Friday. China topped the countries' association with a volume of $ 10.985 billion. Exports to China included leather, carpets and oranges, while imports included equipment and crystal apparatus, mobile phones, fabrics, cars, and steel and iron. Moreover, the trade volume between Egypt and Russia reached $ 3.68 billion, including furniture, agriculture yields and food industries. India followed with $ 3.25 billion in trade volume, represented in cotton, fertilizers, oranges, oils and glass as exports from Egypt, while imports came in the form of cotton textiles, spare car parts, chemical products, medicine and others. Brazil came fourth with $ 1.772 billion. Exports to Brazil included nitrogen fertilizers, metal products, cotton threads and ready-made garments, while Egypt imported sugar, iron materials, pipes and pesticides. At the end of the list comes South Africa with $ 266 million, with exports of fertilizers, cables, textiles, connections and various food products. BRIC is an acronym referring originally to Brazil, Russia, India and China. It was typically rendered as the BRICs, the BRIC countries or economies or the Big Four. After South Africa joined, the acronym became BRICS. BRICS is recognized as an important force in global governance. China holds the BRICS presidency this year. Egypt will participate in the BRICS Xiamen economic Summit, which means that the world economy trusts the Egyptian economic reform program and is giving the country a chance to promote its investment opportunities. The group of emerging economies will meet on September 3-5 in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen for the ninth summit of the bloc, which was first launched by Russia, China, India and Brazil in 2006 and expanded in 2010 to include South Africa.
