Of course, South Africa business should have got in on the ground floor of the South American mining bonanza.
But it is now planned that a body like the Capital Equipment Export Council will see to that in the future.
It will commission expert studies of major capital projects and potential projects around the world, enabling South Africans to be in the bidding from the start, fully aware of how their capacity can meet the requirements.
About time too. The hard lesson was learned on the Lesotho Highlands water scheme, where British and French consortiums made the early running, leaving South Africans to pick up the crumbs.
Nevertheless, they were profitable crumbs. So while the experts look for the big stuff, South African businessmen have the inducement to keep pecking away, as it were.
In March and April, three South African trade delegations went to South America. To this country's cost, that continent is only now emerging from the shade as attention was focused on Europe, North America and Asia.
Clearly the interest is there among South African enterprises. All three delegations were over-subscribed by 200 percent, says Cybil Romberg of the Capital Equipment Export Council. Eleven companies were represented on the capital equipment delegation that visited Chile and Peru.
The automotive industry delegation to Brazil comprised nine companies. There were eight companies from the stainless steel and structural steel sector on the delegation that went to Brazil, Chile and Peru.
"We found an enormous market for everything from hi-tech to conventional equipment," says Chris Beyers, of the department of trade and industry (DTI), who accompanied the capital equipment delegation.
"We also found huge competition from the US and Canada, who are well established there. However, we are competitive. Follow-up meetings have been arranged and some agency agreements have already been signed."
Romberg described the whole exercise as "a successful outward selling mission".
This was the first trade mission organised by the DTI to Peru. Organisation was facilitated by the opening of a South African embassy in Lima with Johan Killian at the helm.
The visit to Lima followed the debut trade mission from Peru to South Africa late last year.
"The Peruvian businessmen told me they were pleasantly surprised with the quality, competitiveness and price of South African technology, and almost all of their companies were interested in securing contracts with them," Juan Jose Meier, the Peruvian ambassador, told the South African delegation before they left.
He added that a number of contracts had already come through in the last six months.
Meier noted that South African transnationals like Anglo American, Billiton and Boart Longyear had been in Peru for some time.
There is, however, huge potential for smaller enterprises wanting a piece of the $2 billion investment in mining exploration alone in the next seven years.
Peru will be spending $10 billion finding and extracting minerals between now and 2006.
Bilateral economic relations have improved with a sixfold growth in trade in the last four years to about $60 million a year
The nature of this commerce is expanding from natural resource-based products towards finished and semi-manufactured goods.
South African companies are exporting increasing volumes of mining technology and equipment and services for construction, manufacturing and catering industries.
Peru is selling South Africa zinc and copper as well as mining equipment, textiles, agricultural goods and foodstuffs. Meier said Peru offered South Africa a gateway to the Andean integration scheme with its market of 80 million people.
Peru is emerging strongly from its period of "uncertainty and duress" after the turbulence in international markets and the effects of El Niqo. Gross domestic product, which grew only 0,7 percent in 1998, was expected to increase by up to 3 percent this year.
In addition to mining, there are good prospects for foreign direct investment in fishing, construction, manufacturing, telecommunications, infrastructure, electricity generation, petroleum and natural gas.