Trade, Industry and Competition on creating a prosperous continent

Let us work together to create a prosperous continent – BBC Vice President

The Vice President of the Black Business Council, Mr Gregory Mofokeng has urged businesspeople from South Africa and  Côte d’Ivoire to work closely together in order to create an economically successful and prosperous continent for the benefit of all its citizens.

Mofokeng was speaking during the South Africa-Côte d’Ivoire Trade and Investment Business Forum hosted by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) in Pretoria today.

The objective of the forum was to provide South African and Ivorian companies with a strategic platform and opportunity to engage on bilateral trade and investment opportunities in both markets, while simultaneously affording them access  to senior decision-makers and stakeholders. The business forum was part of the State Visit to South Africa by the President of Côte d’Ivoire, Mr Alassane Ouattara.

“Let us work together as businesspeople to create a prosperous continent. I want to assure businesspeople from Côte d’Ivoire that South Africa is open for business and the South African businesspeople are ready to  form strong mutually beneficial partnerships with them for the benefit of Africa’s economy in general. We must trade with each other as Africans to ensure that we have an economically prosperous continent that is responsive to needs of our citizens,” said Mofokeng.

He highlighted that it was problematic that businesspeople in Africa were trading more and easily with companies from other continents than amongst themselves.

“Our leaders are doing a sterling job through the African Union to provide us with a strong  vision for the continent which we should take our cue from.  As business we need to work hard together to ensure that the vision is implemented to achieve the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement,” added Mofokeng.

He also implored businesspeople from both countries to take advantage of the cordial diplomatic relations that the countries have, to establish business partnerships that benefit not only the business community, but also the citizens at large.

“As South African businesses, we look forward to cooperating with our counterparts from Côte d’Ivoire in areas such as infrastructure, mining, agriculture and agro-processing, Information and Communication Technology, manufacturing, finance and insurance, tourism and  automotives, to make sure that there are mutual benefits for both economies,” stressed Mofokeng, who also invited the Ivorian businesspeople to invest in South Africa.

The President of the Côte d’Ivoire Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Faman Toure also emphasised close cooperation and establishment of strong partnerships between  South Africa and Ivorian companies to increase two-way trade and investment between the two countries.

“There is still a lot of work that the private sector from our countries still has to do in order to increase the two-way flow of trade and investment between the countries. Côte d’Ivoire is also open for business. The country is rolling out a National Development Plan that is centred around industrialisation and beneficiation, which means that there are unlimited business opportunities for companies from South Africa and Côte d’Ivoire to take advantage of,” emphasised Toure.

Enquiries:
Bongani Lukhele – Director: Media Relations
Tel: (012) 394 1643
Mobile: 079 5083 457
WhatsApp: 074 2998 512

E-mail: BLukhele@thedtic.gov.za

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