With the Fifth BRICS Summit drawing near, South Africa is expecting to intensify cooperation with another BRICS member Russia.

"The South African government is mulling to train the next generation of medics in Russia", the South Africa's main newspaper Business Day reported on Thursday.

The group of BRICS consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and its fifth summit will be held in the South African port city of Durban on March 26-27. South Africa and Russia are currently two important members in BRICS, and their leaders would meet during the upcoming summit in Durban.

The South African government has been in an effort to improve the national health care service capability in recent years. However, only 1200 doctors could graduate from the medical schools every year.

South Africa's Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi on Wednesday said that the country would have to send the medical students to any part of the world for receiving the training with the shortage of doctors.

The minister believed that it would be an advantage for Russia to provide training for South African medical students in English.

(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2013)