3 October 2022
The Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Mr Ebrahim Patel and Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, Bandar bin Ibrahim Al-Khorayef addressed both the forum today.
The objective of the forum is to provide South African and Saudi Arabian companies with a strategic platform to engage on bilateral trade and investment opportunities in both markets, while simultaneously affording them access to senior decision-makers and stakeholders.
Both ministers will witness the launch of the South Africa-Saudi Arabia Joint Business Council on 4 October 2022.
The JEC between South Africa and Saudi Arabia is envisaged to explore areas of cooperation, which will provide and promote maximum opportunities on trade and investment, and industrial development.
The JEC is an ideal platform to unlock investments through establishing networks with key Saudi Arabian officials and private sector leaders, and importantly to attract investment to South Africa’s Special Economic Zones. Significantly, the launch of the South Africa-Saudi Arabia Joint Business Council will bring together captains of industry from both countries to develop a roadmap to deepen economic ties.
Saudi Arabia continues to be SA’s strategic partner in the Middle East. It is South Africa’s second largest trading partner the Middle East and largest source of imports from the region. The exchange of political and business visits, as well as trade and investment exhibitions and seminars by both countries in the past years have had a positive effect on trade and investment trends.
Total bilateral trade between South Africa and Saudi Arabia stood at R 66.15 billion in 2021 with South African exports at R 5.54 billion and imports from Saudi Arabia amounting to R 60.61 billion.
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