The emerging-market bloc of BRICS, which groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, issued the 10th BRICS Summit Johannesburg Declaration.

In the declaration, the BRICS leaders acknowledge the importance of infrastructure development and connectivity in Africa and recognize the strides made by the African Union to identify and address the continent's infrastructure challenges, through the New Partnership for Africa's Development and the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa.

"We support the importance of stimulating infrastructure investment on the basis of mutual benefit to support industrial development, job-creation, skills development, food and nutrition security and poverty eradication and sustainable development in Africa," it added.

(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2018)