Pretoria - Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies is to attend the second session of the Turkey - South Africa Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting, which is aimed at promoting trade, investment and economic cooperation.
Accompanied by a government and business delegation, Davies leaves for Turkey today to co-chair the JEC meeting.
"The delegation will participate in the South Africa -Turkey Business Forum which will include break-away sessions and business to business meetings with their Turkish counterparts," departmental spokesperson Sidwell Medupi said.
Currently, economic relations between the two countries are governed by the JEC which was established in accordance with Article 11 of the Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement between South Africa and Turkey.
The 1st session of the SA-Turkey JEC took place in Pretoria in 2008.
At the end of the meeting it is expected that a communiqu, will be signed which will outline a plan on further expanding bilateral trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.
In 2010, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe visited Turkey and during a subsequent visit by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to South Africa in 2011, the two nations agreed to facilitate increased closer collaboration between their business communities.
Following the meeting, Davies will travel to Saudi Arabia to meet his counterpart Dr Tawfeeq Al Rabeeah, the Minister of Commerce and Industry as well as the Minister of Economy and Planning Khalid bin Mohammed Al-Gusaibi and other key private sector players.
The status of bilateral trade between South Africa and Saudi Arabia include foreign direct investment and fast tracking discussions towards the conclusion of the pending Bilateral Investment
Treaty and Trade Cooperation Agreements between the two countries will form part of Davies' visit to Saudi Arabia.
