The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies will travel to Turkey tomorrow, 13 February 2012, to co-chair the second session of the Turkey/South Africa Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting, which is aimed at promoting trade, investment and economic cooperation between the two countries.
Minister Davies will be accompanied by a delegation comprising government officials and business executives. The delegation will participate in the South Africa/Turkey Business Forum which will include break-away sessions and business to business meetings with their Turkish counterparts.
During Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe’s visit to Turkey in 2010, and the subsequent visit by the Prime Minister of Turkey, His Excellency Mr Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to South Africa, the two countries agreed to facilitate increased closer collaboration between the business communities of South Africa and Turkey.
Currently economic relations between the two countries are governed by the South Africa/Turkey JEC. The JEC was established in accordance with Article 11 of the Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement between South Africa and Turkey. The 1st session of the SA/Turkey JEC took place in Pretoria in 2008.
It is expected that at the end of the JEC meeting, a communiqué will be signed which will outline the plan on further expanding bilateral trade and economic cooperation between South Africa and Turkey.
From Turkey Minister Davies will proceed to Saudi Arabia where he will meet with his counterpart H.E. Dr. Tawfeeq Al Rabeeah, the Minister of Commerce and Industry and H.E. Mr Khalid bin Mohammed Al-Gusaibi, Minister of Economy and Planning, as well as other key private sector players.
Minister Davies’s visit to Saudi Arabia will, focus on the following areas, amongst others:
- discussing the status of the bilateral trade between South Africa and Saudi Arabia including Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
- fast-tracking discussions towards the conclusion of the pending Bilateral Investment Treaty and Trade Cooperation Agreements between the two countries
- expediting the sitting of the Joint Economic Cooperation between the two countries
- engaging with his counterpart on various issues pertaining to trade and investments and engaging with relevant stakeholders to identify critical areas of technical and institutional support, among other issues.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe
Departmental Spokesperson
Cell: 079 492 1774
Tel: 012 394 1650
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
