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Johannesburg - South Africa aims to double trade with Britain in the next five years, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said on Thursday.
Briefing the media in parliament following President Jacob Zuma's state visit to Britain, Davies and his cabinet colleague in charge of finance, Pravin Gordhan, stressed the "huge appetite" among South African and British business delegations who met during the visit to meet or exceed this trade target.
Two-way trade between the countries doubled between 2000 and 2008.
Although it had reached the R79bn mark by 2008, the recession reduced this figure to R40bn in 2009. While Davies said that doubling trade in the next five years was "wholly doable", South Africa has also set out why it was essential to restructure the economy so that its exports had a bigger manufactured component - as opposed to the raw resources which currently dominate exports.
Davies said the British appreciate this position, and also recognised that bulk transport systems to take unprocessed products across the world were no longer a cost-effective or environmentally-friendly option.
"This obviously fits in nicely with our plans," said Davies.
Commenting on the enthusiasm with which South Africa had been received, Gordhan said the overall message he had left with was that the country had a lot more positives going for it than negatives.
Gordhan's remarks echo economists' comments that foreign investors regard South Africa as having lower political risk than other emerging markets.
"We need to capitalise on this to optimise economic growth and employment," Gordhan said. "The big change now is that the emerging markets are the future source of growth in the world economy and the African continent, with its one billion people, is being looked at differently even from a year-and-a-half ago."
- Fin24.com
