https://www.engineeringnews.co.za

South Africa should ensure small business participation through JVs, FDI investments – Zulu

Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu discusses the opportunities for small business participation,local economic growth and in Africa's growth prospects. Camerawork and Editing: Nicholas Boyd.

20th June 2016

By: Mia Breytenbach

Creamer Media Deputy Editor: Features

  

Font size: - +

South Africa has to find ways of ensuring that small businesses participate actively in the global market, not just through export facilitation, trade exhibitions and market access opportunities obtained through preferential market opportunities, but also through joint ventures (JVs), foreign direct investment (FDI) and access to capacity building, Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said on Monday.

Speaking at the Southern African International Trade Exhibition (Saitex) in Midrand, she highlighted that government’s Nine-Point Plan to boost economic growth and create much-needed jobs “could potentially accelerate the growth of the economy by an additional 0.8 percentage points in the short term and one percentage point in the medium to long term”. This was in addition to the projected growth of 0.7% in 2016.

Key to this were exports, particularly in the revitalisation of agriculture and agroprocessing, as well as the Industrial Policy Action Plan.

“South Africa’s trade policy intends to take advantage of Africa’s improved growth prospects by increasing exports of goods and services to the region, deepening African integration and positioning South Africa as a hub for African regional and global engagement, as well as leading Africa in negotiations to reduce barriers to African export development and development in markets,” Zulu stressed.

Zulu pointed out that Statistics South Africa had indicated that exports to sub-Saharan Africa made up close to 20% of South African total merchandise exports, excluding gold, with these exports making up a high share of total imports within many Southern African countries.

Positive trade cooperation has also been noticed between Africa and Asian countries, with exports from Asia to Africa having grown 20% a year from 2000 to 2005.
South Africa’s relations with the rest of the continent, therefore, provided an opportunity to benefit from the strong economic growth in the Asian economies and across the Southern African region, stated Zulu.

Emphasising that Saitex spoke to the importance of trade and investment opportunities South Africa had in place for  small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs) and cooperatives, Zulu urged the continuation of encouraging and propelling SMMEs and companies through expos and exhibitions, such as Saitex.

Saitex, being held from Sunday, June 19 to Tuesday, June 21, focused on increasing market opportunities for the City of Johannesburg’s value-added goods and services and was hosted by the City’s Department of Economic Development, the Polish Embassy, the Progressive Business Forum, the Department of Small Business Development, the Small Enterprise Development Agency and the departments of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Trade and Industry and Economic Development.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

Comments

Showroom

Flameblock
Flameblock

FlameBlock is a proudly South African company that engineers, manufactures and supplies fire intumescent and retardant products to the fire...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
M and J Mining
M and J Mining

M and J Mining are leading suppliers of physical support systems as used by the underground mining industry. Our selection of products are not...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Photo of Martin Creamer
On-The-Air (15/03/2024)
15th March 2024 By: Martin Creamer
Magazine round up | 15 March 2024
Magazine round up | 15 March 2024
15th March 2024

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.074 0.12s - 141pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now