Pretoria - South African companies have been urged to take up the favourable opportunities offered by Moscow and expand their product footprint.
Several South African businesspeople are currently in Moscow for the Investment and Trade Initiative (ITI).
Speaking at the seminar, Deputy Director of Foreign Relations in the government of Moscow, Evgeny Dridze, said Moscow had developed the retail market to the tune of USD 70 billion in 2014, part of which comprises one million square meters of shopping malls that have been built.
He said there was currently more demand and less supply of products in the city and therefore international companies were welcome to make the city market more competitive.
“The Department of External and Economic Relations is willing to assist companies that want to enter the market so as to increase the diversity of products available in the market,” added Dridze.
Reiterating the message, the Ambassador of South Africa to Russia, Mandisi Mpahlwa, said South Africa was serious about expanding its product footprint in the country, including other regions of Russia.
According to him, this opportune time came to reinforce the work that had already been done to expand the bucket of trade goods to Russia.
“The fact that this is the second trade mission to the country in a space of five months demonstrates how serious South Africa is to take up opportunities available in the market,” said Mpahlwa.
Mpahlwa said the number of businesspeople who had shown interest and made efforts to come back to Russia to follow up on trade links, and of Russians going to South Africa, was an indication that relations were being created and confidence was being built in the areas of co-operation.
He also added that he was delighted that businesspeople were utilising platforms availed by government, especially the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) to create links and interact with each other.
The over-subscribed seminar was followed by business-to-business meetings where Russian companies expressed a lot of interest in the showcased South African products.
The ITI continues tomorrow in Moscow and the second leg will commence in Novosibirsk on Wednesday. - SAnews.gov.za
