President Jacob Zuma’s first State visit to the UK was a “unique opportunity” for the private sector to “reawaken” its relationships with the European country, Business Unity South Africa (Busa) vice-president Mthunzi Mdwaba said during the SA-UK Business Forum, held in London.

He noted that the forum had attracted the largest-ever business delegation from South Africa, with more than 200 South African business people participating.

“There is no more concrete demonstration of the strong support for the ongoing partnership between our two countries than such a strong showing from the private sector,” added Mdwaba.

Representatives from all industry sectors, including: infrastructure, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, media and culture, transport, mining, oil and gas, housing, construction, banking, information and communication technology, financial services skills and education, as well as human capital development, were participating in the forum.

This included not only some of the country’s largest companies, but also some small players that were keen to diversify their investment portfolios and cooperate with the British to forge new relationships.

The participants would, over the next few days, jointly identify strategic level issues that would need to be dealt with in order to create a more conducive climate for doing business, noted Busa.

One-on-one business meetings, networking between businesswomen from the two countries, and site visits to renewable energy technology usage sites, were all on the forum’s agenda.

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