Pretoria - South African businesses, which will be participating in the 32nd Feira Internacional de Angola (FILDA) have been urged to take advantage of the cordial bilateral relations with Angola.
The Acting Ambassador of South Africa to Angola, Maotwe Mokwena, has urged the 24 companies that will be exhibiting their products and services at the trade fair to make the most of their time at FILDA.
The South African business delegation arrived in Luanda on Monday.
“We are here to promote trade relations between South Africa and Angola. I am happy to announce that the relationship between the two countries, both politically and economically has really developed.
“The relationship dates back to the days of the liberation struggle. And the results are visible in both countries because of the growing bilateral trade and investment between our countries,” said Mokwena.
He added that the participation of South Africa in FILDA would go a long way in boosting bilateral economic relations between the two Southern African countries further.
“We are of the view that trade between South Africa and Angola can be further increased if both governments continue to be resolute and develop new approaches and deepen areas of economic development, industrial and trade co-operation. FILDA is one of the perfect platforms that we can take advantage of to achieve our goal,” he explained.
South African companies have been encouraged to participate in FILDA.
This, he said, would enable them to get an opportunity to network with Angolan and other business people from other countries with the aim of striking deals and establishing joint ventures that would see their products and services being exported to various countries in the Southern Africa Development Community region (SADC) Africa and beyond the continent.
Mokwena said there were numerous South African companies such as Shoprite, Standard Bank and the South African Airways that were already successfully doing business in Angola.
This demonstrated that the Angolan market beckons for South African investments, he said.
The participation of the 24 South African companies exhibiting at FILDA was made possible through the national pavilion organised by the Department of Trade and Industry.
The trade fair will conclude on Sunday. - SAnews.gov.za
