Delegates attending the BRICS business forum at Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, Johannesburg have welcomed Minister of Trade and Industry Ebrahim Patel’s commitment to the harnessing of green industrialisation and call for member countries to move some of their manufacturing processes to the country.
Speaking at the BRICS business forum in a discussion on the manufacturing sector on Monday, Patel said there was a shift in history driven by the emergence of new technologies and innovations.
Patel said he wanted to encourage BRICS members to enter into partnerships and joint ventures in investment, new technologies and in green industrialisation.
One of the delegates at the forum, Vinay Somera, founder and CEO of Isondo Precious Metals, said they were aligned with green industrialisation, new technology and innovation.
Isondo is setting up the manufacturing processes of platinum group metal based catalysts and membrane electrode assemblies at the OR Tambo SEZ as well as the deployment of hydrogen into hydrogen refuelling stations and more than 300 fuel cell buses and trucks within the greater Johannesburg area,
He said the staggering high unemployment in the country meant business has to find new ways of creating jobs and of reindustrialising.
“This green opportunity for us is crucial because it thrives on the factors that we have in abundance, we have abundant resources, solar resources and we have an abundance of the platinum group metal resources.
“We have to combine these three to become a leader in the space but to do so we have to have projects that are on the ground, ready to execute at the time when the market is starting to expand within the green hydrogen value chain and this is what we do.
He said one of the projects is the manufacturing of platinum group metals into components that underpin the green hydrogen industry and these components include platinum based catalysts and membrane electrode assemblies for fuel cells and electrolytes.
“These kinds of projects create jobs by beneficiation precious metals from the local miners up the value chain, thereby creating additional revenue for the country and if we have multiple projects like this, including projects along the green hydrogen production value chain, then there is no reason why we cannot create hundreds of thousands of skilled jobs.”
He said this was an opportunity for the country that cannot be missed.