Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma is to attend the 25th Africa-France Summit to be held in Nice, France, from Monday.
The summit is expected to focus on the African continent's role in global governance, strengthening peace and security, climate and development.
It will further provide the South African Government and the private sector with the opportunity to engage the French counterparts on key priority areas for Africa's socio-economic development, as well as identify opportunities for further collaboration, the Presidency said.
Zuma is scheduled to address Heads of State and Government representatives on "Strengthening peace and security in Africa". Areas of focus to be discussed relate to peace and security on the African Continent; the operationalisation of the Peace and Security Architecture; the challenge of insufficient technical and financial resources, coupled with skills shortages; and the aspect of unconstitutional changes in government in Africa.
The Presidency said South Africa views the summit of strategic importance given the bilateral relations it has and is seeking to expand with France.
Zuma will be accompanied by Ministers of International Relations and Cooperation, Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and Trade and Industry's Rob Davies.
Total trade between South Africa and France had been increasing consistently from 2000 to 2004 where-after it declined from R24, 3 billion in 2004 to R21.9 billion in 2005, a percentage decrease of 9.9 percent. Total trade started to increase again from 2006 and reached R31.6 billion in 2008. However, although trade figures for 2009 are only up to October, there was a huge decline in total trade to almost half of the total value of 2008 at R16.9 billion in 2009.
The huge decline in total trade in 2009 can be attributed to lower global demand for imports as a result of the global crisis in 2008 and 2009.
However, France remains an important trading partner for South Africa. The country is ranked 20th in the world as South Africa's export partner in 2009 (18th in 2008) and 9th as the country's import partner in the same year.
