Pretoria - The Department of Trade and Industry (dti) will lead a business delegation to the Middle East, one of South Africa’s important trade zones.
The outward selling mission to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which will kick off on Saturday, aims to build on the commitments made by the dti to expose South African companies to the Middle East Market and to deepen bilateral trade and investment relations between these countries.
“The Middle East is an important trade zone for South Africa. It holds great potential for South Africa as an export market, and serves as a potential source of foreign direct investment,” dti Minister Rob Davies said on Thursday.
The Middle East is one of the world’s fastest growing markets for manufactured products and services.
Saudi Arabia is South Africa’s largest trading partner and second largest export destination in the Gulf region. In 2012, total bilateral trade between the two countries amounted to R61.7 billion.
Agro-processing, manufacturing machinery and equipment, capital equipment, the built environment and chemicals are the sectors targeted for the missions.
The programme for the Outward Selling Mission will include business seminars, business-to-business meetings and site visits.
Kuwait is South Africa’s sixth largest export destination in the Middle East. Total bilateral trade between the two countries amounted to R246 million in 2012.
The visit to the Middle East will conclude on 30 November 2013.
Business delegation to visit Turkey
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister Elizabeth Thabethe will lead a business delegation on an outward selling and investment mission to Turkey at the weekend.
The delegation will visit the cities of Istanbul and Ankara from Sunday to Friday (29 November 2013).
The mission, which aims to build on the one held in November 2012, will assist South African companies to promote investment opportunities, explore joint ventures and also provide a platform to promote South African manufactured products to potential new Turkish partners.
“Both South Africa and Turkey feature in one another's top 40 list of imports and export trade partners. The two countries are regional powerhouses in their respective regions. South Africa’s exports to Turkey have also been steadily increasing to an extent that the trade deficit in favour of Turkey has been significantly reduced,” says Thabethe.
The sectors targeted for the mission are energy, mining and jewellery, infrastructure, Information and Communication Technology, capital equipment and engineering, and textiles and clothing. - SAnews.gov.za
