BRICS Southern Observatory (BRICS-SO) Project: Invitation to African countries to invest in Chile
Recently, the BRICS countries created a promising astronomy consortium (https://www.bricsastronomy.org/), which was joined last year by some emerging countries, including two African countries, namely: Egypt and Ethiopia. Certainly, other African countries will join BRICS+ in the years to come. Thus, by pooling their efforts, emerging countries (BRICS+) are sure to quickly catch up with their technological delay in the field of astronomy, particularly through ambitious and large-scale projects. Chile, due to the exceptional climatic conditions of its North, is recognized as the world capital of astronomy where all the largest consortia have settled there and applied all their know-how. The official launch of BRICS (and then its expansion to other countries; BRICS+) is welcomed as an excellent opportunity to think big in the development of astronomy. China has shown great determination in being the first country in the South to establish astronomical facilities in Chile, thus opening a possible opportunity for BRICS+ astronomers. Ambitious astronomical instrumentation is essential for the future of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Access to existing facilities is becoming more and more difficult because of saturation. Existing programs like the VLT-I/ELT and their instruments necessitated decades of collaboration between international institutions. It is therefore necessary for the BRICS+ astronomical community to collaborate together on ambitious projects without wasting time in order to offer a new pole with new opportunities for the researchers. This pole (BRICS-SO), in addition to attracting highly qualified people, will also help train new generations in all our countries, and encourage exchanges and collaborations.