South African Aerospace, Maritime, and Defence Export Council (SAAMDEC) CEO Sandile Ndlovu has urged the South African defence industry to cultivate a healthy interest within the Egyptian market, as it is the biggest on the continent, spending well over $4-billion, the trade and industry department (dti) said on Sunday.

Speaking at the conclusion of a week-long outward trade and investment mission (OTIM) in Cairo, Egypt, he said the export council’s mission was spearheaded on a two-pronged approach.

"The first, was to formally introduce the South African defence industry to the market and acknowledging the efforts of individual companies that have been interacting with the Egyptian defence. The second was to identify areas where South Africa and Egypt could cooperate in the defence space,” he said. 

“Our first interactions with the Egyptian private sector occurred during a defence exhibition that was held in Egypt last year. We interacted again this time around and have found that there is a lot of interest to cooperate with us, specifically on the promotion and marketing of our products in the private sector.

"What we have agreed on doing between ourselves and the Egyptian defence authorities is to streamline discussions by identifying specific areas where we could cooperate. In the meantime, because Egypt has such a huge buying capacity, they have also made an undertaking that they would forward more inquiries of their requirements to South Africa. Over and above the co-producing and co-developing, we will begin to assist the Egyptians with their defence requirements in areas where South Africa has solutions,” said Ndlovu.

Afriveyor technical business development manager Jonathan Alberts, who was also part of the business delegation, reported that he had also made significant progress on this mission as a first excursion.

“I came across this Egyptian businessperson who had demonstrated interest in my industrial vacumation systems machines for construction and mining. I will be communicating with him to schedule an appointment where he would visit our workshop in Johannesburg in January. From then on we will begin engaging on business and sign the necessary licensing agreements and handle all subsequent legalities,” he said.