Durban - The Department of Trade and Industry (dti) will lead a South African business delegation on an "Outward Trade and Investment Mission (OTIM)" to Cairo from December 1 to 6, it said on Monday.
This OTIM follows on South Africa’s participation at the inaugural Inter-Africa Trade Fair, which took place in Cairo in December 2018.
According to the dti, it is envisaged that the mission will expose South African companies to the Egyptian market, deepen bilateral trade relations, create greater knowledge of South African opportunities and improve awareness of investment opportunities.
The dti's deputy minister, Fikile Majola, said the business delegation would consist of companies that had been funded under the Export Marketing Investment Assistance (EMIA), and would be representing sectors of infrastructure, agriculture, agro-processing, energy equipment, textiles and mining equipment.
“The economic activity in Egypt is primarily driven by state-led projects as evidenced by large public investments, and the economy has shown recovery from effects of the global financial crisis with a growth rate of 5,3% in 2018, up from 4,2% in 2017. This new-found resilience and economic recovery of the country serves as the perfect launch-pad for our companies to set up operations that will go beyond the whole North African region,” said Majola.
Egypt was currently well underway with efforts to diversify its economy from one that was mainly dominated by tourism and telecommunications, he said.
He added that the country's industrial sector was a major contributor to its economic growth, employment generation and export proceeds.
"The sectoral focus of Egypt’s industrial strategy is engineering, food processing, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The objective of the Egyptian government is to go beyond simple assembly operations towards industrial upgrading and maximising value-added in the whole value-chain."
The OTIM will include a trade and investment seminar, targeted business-to-business meetings and sector-specific site visits.