Cape Town – BMW does not plan to leave South Africa, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, said today shortly before an expected meeting this afternoon with the German car manufacturer.
Speaking at a media briefing ahead of French President François Hollande’s visit to South Africa next Monday and Tuesday, Davies said he had met a BMW delegation during the strike and that the company had pointed out that it remained committed to South Africa.
He said he would meet again with BMW this afternoon.
“I received a letter from BMW in which they clarified what they had said, and which they were concerned wasn’t necessary correctly reported.
“What they said is that they are continuing operations in South Africa – there is no question of them discontinuing their operations in South Africa.
“They did say they have the possibility of competing for an additional model in the South African operations, and they felt that that was jeopardised by the recent strikes,” said Davies.
However, he said the signing of a three-year wage agreement, following the conclusion of the motor industry strike last week, would bring stability to the sector.
Commenting on the news that Renault has announced that it will open a facility in Nigeria, Davies pointed out that he had recently spoken to his Nigerian counterpart on co-operating with the West African country to develop a vehicle manufacturing industry there, with the expectation that South African suppliers would be able to get involved in supplying components to facilities there.
Turning to Hollande’s visit to South Africa next week, Davies said a business forum will take place at the Sandton Convention Centre, which 40 French business delegates and 45 local business people are expected to attend – representing various sectors including oil and gas, financial services, energy, infrastructure and manufacturing.
The forum is themed on working together for the industrialisation of Africa and the session will be opened by Davies and his counterpart, French trade minister Nicole Bricq, who will also hold a bilateral meeting with Davies.
Davies said though South Africa plans to terminate its 16 year-old bilateral investment treaty with France, as it plans to do with those European countries it has similar bilateral investment treaties with, the protections under these treaties would remain in place for a further 20 years.
“We are far advanced with the development of our investment bill, which is what we think ought to be the mainstay of our investment protection regime,” he said.
He said the new law, being developed by his department, would offer a series of protections for the rights of investors in line with the property clause in the Constitution, particularly as a number of investment treaties were signed by South Africa before the Constitution came into being in 1996.
“What we are trying to do is to modernise and to make more universally applicable a system of investment protection, because there are many countries which are significant investors in this country with which we have no such agreement…” said Davies.
Total trade between France and South Africa has begun to show signs of recovery from the global economic crisis, with two-way trade having increased by 18.5% between 2009 and 2012 – from R22.7 billion to R26.9 billion – but still below pre-crisis levels of R30.6 billion recorded in 2008.
Imports from France have recovered to R20.5 billion in 2012, from R20.3 billion in 2008; however, South Africa exports make up just R6.1 billion, down from R10.3 billion in 2008.
French investment stock in South Africa is at R9.4 billion, while South African investment stock in France totals R941 million.
In South Africa, French company Aerosud manufactures parts for Airbus, while local pharmaceutical company Aspen Pharmacare recently acquired a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in France.
Aspen Pharmacare chief executive Stavros Nicolaou said the new facility acquired from French company Notre Dame de Bondeville would offer new manufacturing opportunities for South Africa. – SAnews.gov.za
