The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) will host the South Africa-Kenya Trade and Investment Business Forum on November 23.

The forum is aimed at increasing and diversifying levels of bilateral trade and investment between the two countries and will take place at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, in Pretoria.

Trade, Industry and Competition Deputy Minister Fikile Majola on November 22 said the business forum was meant to encourage the private sector from both countries to explore and discuss opportunities for future partnership and investment in different sectors. 

“South Africa has identified Kenya as a strategic partner given its location and geopolitical influence within the East Africa region. Kenya is also strategic in its relative economic size and abundance of trade and investment opportunities and its importance within the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the East African Community,” he said. 

He added that Kenya is South Africa’s largest trading partner outside the Southern African Development Community (SADC). 

“Overall, South Africa and Kenya boast various bilateral agreements in areas such as trade, economic cooperation, agriculture, sports, the avoidance of double taxation, science and technology, education, home affairs, public enterprises, police, defence and correctional services, water and sanitation, human settlements, transport, tourism and environmental affairs,” added Majola. 

He pointed out that the business forum would also strengthen bilateral economic relations between South Africa and Kenya and pledged its support for South African and Kenyan companies’ two-way endeavours in exploring industrial and infrastructure development projects in both countries. 

“One of South Africa’s strategic goals is to build mutually beneficial regional and global relations to advance South Africa’s trade, industrial policy and economic development objectives,” he said.

To put this into context, the total bilateral trade between South Africa and Kenya increased from R8.4-billion in 2016 to R11.6-billion in 2019, before decreasing to R7.7-billion in 2020.

South Africa’s exports to Kenya increased from R8.1-billion in 2016 to R11.3-billion in 2019 before decreasing to R7.4-billion in 2020 owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.