Posted: November 17, 2019
the dti to Lead an Outward Trade And Investment Mission to Cote d’Ivoire |
The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) will lead a delegation of businesspeople on an Outward Trade and Investment Mission (OTIM) to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, scheduled to take place from 18 – 22 November 2019. The primary objective of this mission is to profile and market South African expertise and capabilities to an important and strategic Francophone country such as Cote d’Ivoire, in an effort to advance the levels of intra-Africa trade and investment. The business delegation will consist of companies from the agriculture, agro-processing and infrastructure sectors.
The participating companies are funded by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) through its Export Marketing and Investment Assistance Scheme (EMIA). The objective of the scheme is to support both market access for South African products and services and to recruit new foreign direct investment into the country. According to the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Fikile Majola, the OTIM is aligned to the dti’s strategic priority of supporting missions which contribute to higher levels of value added exports, facilitate transformation of the economy, intensify industrial development, enhance investment and enable market integration between South Africa and the rest of the African continent. “This mission will also introduce South African companies to the Ivorian market with the aim of assisting exporters to understand the dynamics of this challenging market, identify solid trade and investment opportunities and realise much needed export sales. This will result in strengthened economic relations between South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire as a major economic hub in Francophone Africa,” says Majola. Majola adds that South Africa is in an advantageous position to partner with Cote d’Ivoire in order to achieve the 2020 developmental goal set by the country through commercial exchanges in the priority sectors of agriculture, agro-processing and infrastructure which have been recognised by the Ivorian government as critical to its developmental goals. The programme for the OTIM entails a trade and investment seminar, targeted business to business meetings, site visits and a round table discussion at the African Development Bank (AfDB) headquarters. South Africa’s main exports to Cote d’Ivoire consist of value added products such as machinery, vehicles, base metals, plastics and vegetable products whilst imports from Cote d’Ivoire are also dominated by value added goods such as plastics, prepared foodstuffs, wood and articles of wood and vegetable products. Enquiries: |