Portugal
9 November 2006
Pretoria - South African Deputy President, Mrs Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, will
pay an official visit to Portugal and Ireland from Sunday to Tuesday, 12 to 14
November and Tuesday to Thursday, 14 to 16 November 2006 respectively. Deputy
President Mlambo-Ngcuka will be hosted by her counterparts Portuguese Prime
Minister José Sócrates and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.
Deputy President Mlambo-Ngcuka's delegation will include Education Minister
Naledi Pandor and Deputy Ministers Aziz Pahad, Rob Davies, Ntombazana Botha and
Roy Padayachie.
Deputy President Mlambo-Ngcuka's visit comes within the context of South
Africa's commitment to consolidate the African Agenda, through among others,
North-South co-operation for improved trade and market access. In this regard,
Portugal will assume the chairpersonship of the European Union (EU) from July
to December 2007.
Issues on the agenda of discussions between Deputy President Mlambo-Ngcuka
and her counterparts are expected to include among others:
* the status of bilateral political and economic relations between both
countries
* the status of South Africa - European Union (EU) relations
* a briefing on developments on the African continent including the outcomes
of the elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and peacekeeping and
conflict resolution in Burundi, Somalia, Sudan and Côte d'Ivoire
* a briefing on developments within the EU
* other issues of mutual interest including South Africa's accession to the
non-permanent seat of the United Nations (UN) Security Council.
In Portugal Deputy President Mlambo-Ngcuka will also pay a courtesy call on
President Cavaco Silva, the President of Parliament, Jaime Gama and will
participate in a trade and investment seminar with Portuguese and South African
business persons.
In Ireland, Deputy President Mlambo-Ngcuka is expected to pay a courtesy
call on the President of Ireland, Ms Mary McAleese, Prime Minister Bertie Ahern
and hold discussions with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Michael
McDowell as well as with Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern and Minister of
State Conor Lenihan.
The main objective of the visit is to further co-operation with Ireland on
the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) and the
Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) including skills
development, the placement of South African graduates in Irish companies,
education co-operation, business process outsourcing (BPO) and Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT), tourism, small, medium and micro enterprise
(SMME) development, expanding South Africa's manufacturing base as well as
co-operation in the agro-industry.
A secondary objective is to learn from the Irish economic experience of the
past two decades, during which Ireland was able to leapfrog from being one of
the poorest countries in the EU to one of the richest. This will include an
examination of the role of EU structural funding in Ireland's economic
development.
The Deputy President will participate in an Education Seminar that will
explore co-operation between South Africa and Ireland in various fields of
education as well as in a seminar hosted by the South Africa-Ireland Business
Association and the South African Embassy in Dublin under the banner "Economic
Prospects for South Africa and Ireland in the context of AsgiSA and JIPSA". The
latter seminar will focus on AsgiSA priority sectors such as BPO, ICT, the
agro-industry and tourism.
Bilateral economic relations
Portugal
The most important South African exports to Portugal are coal, steel
products, frozen fish, fresh fruit, fruit juices, vegetables, wood and granite.
According to the latest figures from the Portuguese Ministry of Economy, South
Africa is amongst the top eight countries with the biggest growth of exports to
Portugal during 2005 mostly due to coal imports. South African exports to
Portugal increased by 25,7 percent (according to the Department of Trade and
Industry) during 2005.
South Africa's main imports from Portugal are wood, cork, paper, ceramics,
machinery, food, minerals, metal and chemicals. In 2005, Portuguese exports to
South Africa registered a 19,7 percent decrease (Department of Trade and
Industry source).
Investment
South African investment in Portugal
The largest South African company operating in Portugal is the Abadare
Cables subsidiary Alcobre that manufactures cables for the telecommunications
industry.
The South African property company Homenet has an office in Lisbon.
SmartPac, a "smart card" company, has an agreement with the local company
Prism.
The South African company Netcare established a partnership with the
Portuguese private healthcare company, Private Hospitals of Portugal (HPP) on 2
August 2004.
In addition there are also a number of ostrich breeding companies who have
strong southern African connections as well as various small importing and
exporting companies especially in the linen and curtaining industry.
Tsumeb (electronic protection systems and integrated network security
solutions) is manufacturing in Aveiro in the north of Portugal.
Carrol Boyes opened its first European shop in Portugal (Cascais) during
June 2005.
Portuguese investment in South Africa
* Sonae
* Amorim
* Pestana Group
* Cimpor
* Construtora do Tamega
* Caixa Geral de Depositos (CGD)
* Banif
* BPI
* Banco Privado-BPP
* Bes Investimento
South African investment in Portugal (1 000 EUR)
2003: 791
2002: 516
2001: 2,060
Portuguese investment in South Africa (1 000 EUR)
2003: 3,963
2002: 9,645
2001: 3,378
South African trade with Portugal
2005
Exports to Portugal: R915 677 million
Imports from Portugal: R640 970 million
2004
Exports to Portugal: R727 349 million
Imports from Portugal: R797 746 million
2003
Exports to Portugal: R754 734 million
Imports from Portugal: R535 167 million
2002
Exports to Portugal: R1 010 756 million
Imports from Portugal: R594 523 million
2001
Exports to Portugal: R673 930 million
Imports from Portugal: R450 601 million
Ireland
South African exports to Ireland - R1 122 108 000 (R1,2 billion)
(2005)
Imports to South Africa from Ireland - R4 072 400 000 (R4,07 billion)
(2005)
The trade balance has traditionally been very much skewed in Ireland's
favour by a ratio of 3:1. However, this gap has been narrowing in recent years
and the outlook for South African exports is positive. Exports to Ireland have
grown steadily in the last four years from EUR100 million in 2001 to almost
EUR160 million at the end of 2005. In 2005, Ireland was South Africa's 41st
biggest export market. According to figures from the Embassy in Dublin imports
from Ireland have grown negatively over this period from EUR400 million in 2001
to just EUR250 million in 2005.
Furniture appears to be South Africa's largest export to Ireland, 27
percent. This is a new development. Twenty six percent of exports to Ireland
are made up of fertilisers and minerals. Sixteen percent is accounted for by
coal, coke and briquettes while fruit and vegetables account for about 11
percent. Nine percent of exports are made up of beverages.
Imports to South Africa are dominated by "office machinery and automatic
data processing machines". This can be explained by the presence of large
multinational computer hardware manufacturing companies in Ireland such as
Hewlett Packard, Dell and IBM. Thirteen percent of exports are medical and
pharmaceuticals products which are not surprising given the number of
multinational pharmaceutical firms located in Ireland.
Since 1999, Irish firms have made several significant investments in South
Africa across a variety of sectors. Among the more well known, Irish
entrepreneur, Dr Tony O'Reilly and Irish Independent Newspapers have taken over
the Argus newspaper group. Irish investors, in particular Nial Mellon, have
invested heavily in property in Cape Town. Howard Holdings has purchased eight
historic buildings in the centre of Cape Town which they are converting into a
six star hotel, conference centre and luxury apartments.
Contact:
Ronnie Mamoepa
Cell: 082 990 4853
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
9 November 2006
