President Xi and his South African counterpart President Cyril Ramaphosa have made a strong case for multilateralism at the BRICS Business Council meeting in Sandton. The two leaders emphasized the need for global trade to follow the World Trade Organisation and other international rules and agreements. Angelo Coppola spoke to business leaders for their reaction on this call.

The talk around unilateralism versus multilateralism is seen in some quarters as an opportunity for the five BRICS members to begin exerting their combined influence.

ANDREW LANE ENERGY & RESOURCES LEADER, DELOITTE "I think there's also an opportunity in the BRICS construct to start doing stuff amongst ourselves and to maybe potentially get a trading bloc together where we can actually exert more influence on global trade."

In terms of South Africa and Russia, there's a more immediate risk。

ANDREW LANE ENERGY & RESOURCES LEADER, DELOITTE "I think for me the biggest threat right now, for both countries, is neither of us is at the top of the list in terms of global investor attractiveness, and we both have the challenge of corruption."

WARREN DRUE HOGAN LOVELLS "The Russian businessman, looking to make an investment in this country, initially has to get over the credibility issues that South Africa faces. We have come out of a very negative political environment where we are the subject of state capture, lots of corruption issues that have to be dealt with, and have to be sorted out. And I think, if they can get their mind around the credibility issue they've then got to understand the dynamic of doing business in this country. It's not an easy place to do business. We have a lot of legislative environment, things such as BEE have to be dealt with and understood, and I think if they can get their minds around understanding the South African business dynamic, it's a great place to do business."

That hasn't stopped companies from exploring opportunities in South Africa and Russia. The biggest challenge of course being distance.

KIRILL LIPA GENERAL DIRECTOR, TRANSMASH HOLDINGS "That's why we need to be more local. We need to have close and more deeper understanding of the local situation here, political, social, labour, environmental laws so that's why we have to be here more close partnership with local partners."

Operating in Russia has its own challenges, like any foreign business looking to enter new markets. It's even more challenging as a South African pharmaceutical company.

STAVROS NICOLAOU SENIOR EXECUTIVE, ASPEN PHARMACARE "We understood that we were being delisted because there's a requirement that you produce products locally. So it did blind side us a little. But we were able to engage with the authorities and the long and the short of it is we had to find a technology partner that we're comfortable with, that's going to be able to provide the products locally for us."

ANGELO COPPOLA ROSEBANK, SOUTH AFRICA "It's all about long term commitment and sustainability if companies want to operate in other BRICS countries. I'm Angelo Coppola for CGTN in ROSEBANK, South Africa."