DP Ramaphosa lands in Sweden

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Pretoria - Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and his delegation have left for Sweden where he is expected to attend and co-chair the 8th session of the South Africa-Sweden Binational Commission.

The Binational Commission is expected to start on Sunday and will finish on Wednesday in Stockholm.

“The visit to Sweden is aimed at consolidating political and economic bilateral relations between the two countries in the areas of trade and industry, science and technology, higher education, environment, water and sanitation, telecommunications and co-operative governance,” the Presidency said.

The environment, energy and water sub-committee is expected to be launched at the Binational Commission which will be co-chaired by Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Asa Romson.

The new sub-committee will add to existing committees on political affairs, economic affairs, science and technology as well as a forum on human rights.

This year's Binational Commission session will witness the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between South African Medical Research Council and the Swedish Research Council to advance co-operation in the area of health research.

Letters of intent on Water Research and Water Resource Management will also be signed to advance co-operation in water research and management. 

Furthermore a letter of intent will also be signed on Environmental Protection and Climate Change.

“While in Sweden Deputy President Ramaphosa is expected to pay a courtesy call on Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven as part of efforts to consolidate bilateral relations while deepening co-operation at a multilateral level to transform the global political and economic governance including the reform of the UN system as well as the UN Security Council,” the Presidency said.

He will also lay a wreath at the graveside of the late former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme who played a pivotal role during the anti-apartheid struggle in pursuit of peace, freedom and justice in South Africa.

Additionally Deputy President Ramaphosa will address the Swedish Business Forum and interact with a select group of senior executives of Swedish companies as part of efforts to encourage more trade and foreign direct investment into South Africa.

“The South African delegation will also explore initiatives to implement Information and communications technology (ICT)  Small, Medium and Micro-sized Enterprises (SMME) development, digital opportunities programme under SA Connect through skills development for communities, e-skills development programme and the research, development and innovation,” the Presidency said.

The delegation will also seek co-operation to expand twinning partnerships between South African and Swedish municipalities to support training and capacity building in infrastructure planning, improvement of public participation, municipal governance through exchanges. –SAnews.gov.za