PRETORIA, August 6. /TASS/. Trade among BRICS countries [Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa] has grown by 70% from the time of the group establishment in 2009, President of South Africa Jacob Zuma said on Thursday.

"The Summit also reaffirmed the importance of BRICS in the global arena. BRICS presents an aggregate GDP exceeding $32 trillion. This marks a 60% growth since the formation of the grouping," the president said.

BRICS accounts for almost 30% of the global GDP and produces a third of the world’s industrial products and one half of agricultural goods. The president of South Africa added BRICS countries also attracted 20.5% of global total direct investment in 2014 compared to only 16.9% in 2009. "The share of BRICS capital investment on the global markets has also increased significantly from 9.7% to 14% since 2009," the president said.

"We stand ready to expand our economic cooperation with these partners in key areas such as food production, power generation, the petro-chemical industry, mining, tourism, renewable and nuclear energy, trade, transportation, communications and training," Zuma said.

The president said the key achievement of the BRICS Summit was the entry into force of the BRICS financial institutions, namely the New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement. The Bank has already been formally opened in Shanghai.

"The next exciting initiative is the establishment of the African Regional Centre of the Bank in Johannesburg," the president said. He added the big world banks see the BRICS bank as an important additional factor in the global financial transactions.