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The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies together with his Chinese counterpart, Mr Cheng Deming will officially open the South African Expos 2012 tomorrow in Beijing, China. Sixty-eight South African companies from different sectors are taking part in the exhibitions.

The Expos are an initiative that seeks to expand the basket of export products into China, and change the current structure of trade to comprise of more value-added products over the long term.

Minister Davies says China and South Africa share a number of things in common one of them being their involvement in the BRICS blog and have a number of cooperation agreements that have been signed over the years. He added that the two have secured a number of important networks with both the Republic of China government and business community.

“These particular expos are special in that we chose a number of companies that have the ten value-added products identified in the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement (CSPA) signed by both countries in August 2010, prioritising the improvement of the structure of trade between the two countries,” said Davies

He also said companies should take this opportunity provided by the government to represent South Africa in a good light and act as ambassadors for their products.

“There is a need to establish capacity for South African companies to supply a larger market in China especially in the agro-processing and space aviation sectors that have prospects in Asia,” added Davies

Johannesburg Central Business District-based company; Ithemba Diamond General Manager Ms Mosibudi-Jo Mathole said China was one of the few countries where there is abundant market for the diamond industry.

“China has a 40% consumer ratio of all diamonds in the world in that they have more retail branches of jewellery stores and are one of the leading countries involved in beneficiation of diamonds stones. So it is very clear that this is the market where we can grow Shrenuj as a brand and Ithemba Diamond as a diamond manufacturer,” said Mathole.

She also said that she was positive about the expos and was looking forward to her the one-on-one business meetings with potential partners or distributors.

The Director of Right Side Marketing Company who has been producing juice for the past ten years, Mr Tony Singh from Germiston, Gauteng, said he’s looking forward to business-to-business meetings.

“I have been to several missions organised by the Department of Trade and Industry and China has never been one of them. I’m therefore looking forward to meeting potential inventors and credible distributors who are already in the market and have set of networks with big supermarkets, hotels and wholesalers,” said Singh.

Minister Davies will also witness the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Trade and Industry and the International Brand Management Centre pertaining to the promotion of South African products in China tomorrow. It is envisaged that this particular initiative will substantially enhance the trade relationship between China and South Africa.

From Thursday the Expo will be held at Shanghai and will conclude on Friday, 26 October in Shanghai, China.