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The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Ms Elizabeth Thabethe has challenged the South African and Congolese businesspeople to roll up their sleeves and work hard in order to address the trade imbalance between the two countries. Thabethe, who is leading a delegation of more than sixty businesspeople on Investment and Trade Initiative to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was delivering a keynote address attended by about 200 businesspeople in Lubumbashi in the Katanga province, yesterday. She is on the second leg of the ITI which began in Kinshasa last week.
“The two-way trade between South Africa and the DRC stood at R 7.8 billion in 2011 compared to R 6.2 billion in 2010 and R 4.8 billion in 2009. This demonstrates a steady growth in trade between the two countries, although, the trade balance is still skewed in favour of South Africa. The challenge is to reduce this imbalance, without necessary reducing South Africa’s exports to the DRC, but by increasing DRC’s exports to South Africa. However, it should be noted that imports from DRC increased by more than 5 percent from 2010 to 2011, from R 103, 768 million to R 108.242 million which is a welcomed improvement,” said Thabethe.

She added that in improving the trends of the trade imbalances, the key interventions proposed by the two countries should focus on ensuring diversification of their economies through closer collaboration on business to business ventures and relations.

“In terms country to country economic patterns, trade between South Africa and DRC is mainly based on manufactured goods for SA while imports from the DRC are on mineral products. This clearly indicates a big scope of improvement in this regard. In ensuring diversification, the two countries also need to cooperate in areas of policy know-how and knowledge sharing. On this note, South Africa is ready to share the skills on infrastructure development and on other relevant expertise in order to assist in addressing the infrastructural backlog experienced by most countries in Africa. South Africa is also ready to share knowledge, experience and to provide capacity on the development of the Industrial Policy to address the issue of diversification and beneficiation of mineral resources,” said Thabethe.

Thabethe said she believed that by combining expertise and developing synergies, South African and DRC companies can establish successful partnerships, which could deliver benefits to enterprises in both countries.

In their speech at the seminar, both the Government of the Katanga Province Mr Moise Chapwe Katumbi and the South African Consul-General in Lubumbashi Mr Mahlatse Mminele said investment opportunities were abundant in Lubumbashi and the Katanga Province in general. These range from agriculture and mining to tourism, automotives, health, education, infrastructure development and ICT.