The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) will host the National Export Strategy workshop in Kempton Park, Johannesburg on Tuesday, 19 March 2013. The workshop is a culmination of the consultative workshops that have been held across the country in the past month.
The workshops also allowed provincial government structures to share their export plans, programmes and strategies, and would result in a synergised national export approach for the country. Issues that were raised by stakeholders in provinces include access to funding, support by all levels of government, access to information, customs, access to markets, infrastructure and registration of exporters.
According to the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, the stakeholder engagement process is a very important initiative aimed at soliciting views, opinions and strategic inputs from the various role-players.
"In essence, a national export strategy looks into the competitiveness and development of a country’s export sector and indentifies priorities for enhanced export performance. the dti's Trade and Investment South Africa division has covered a significant amount of ground during the provincial workshops where they obtained recommendable input from various stakeholders in the provinces.
A key strategic objective of the dti is to build mutually beneficial regional and global relations to advance South Africa’s trade, industrial policy and economic development objectives. We are also mandated to grow the country’s export base by increasing the number of exporters and assisting companies to increase exports of locally manufactured products and services, amongst others," said Davies.
"He added that there is a need to review and develop a streamlined approach to export development and promotion in line with global best practice and the country’s latest economic policy developments such as Industrial Policy Action Plan, New Growth Path, the National Development Plan," said Davies.
The review of the national export strategy focused on the whole of South Africa, considering both the private and public sectors, including State-Owned Entities. The dti is working towards finalising the strategy during the 2013/14 financial year.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe, Departmental Spokesperson
Tel: 012 394 1650
Cell: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
Follow us on Twitter: @the_dti
