The Director-General of the Department of Trade and Industry, Mr Lionel October said South Africa was confident of achieving the goals it set in its National Development Plan (NDP). He was speaking at German-South Africa business forum hosted by the Southern African-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Sandton today.

According to October, South Africa has a concrete plan for implementing the NDP and ensuring that its goals are realised. He emphasised that South Africa needed to industrialise in order to meet its goals in the next 15 years and that the Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP) was the route to prosperity.

October encouraged the German business community to take up opportunities that are available in South Africa and not be threatened by the bilateral investment termination of treaties or the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment.

“Our NDP talks about diversified economy so we can face our challenges. There must be mutual benefits for both South Africa and Germany and hence we want to partner with Germany to diversify our economy,” he said.

October told the business delegates that they should not be threatened by re-industrialisation as it was the way Africa was going.

“Our requirement of local content in manufacturing is because we want to be part of the value chain as we are also technologically advanced and have the capacity to do manufacturing. We have a very flexible approach to BBBEE codes which say that if you are for instance unable to meet the ownership criteria, you should meet other criteria such as the equity equivalence like supplier development,” said October.

He assured the Germans that the termination of investment treaties where to ensure that South African government protects investments of all investors in this country.

“Our constitution guarantees investor protection and therefore our aim with the legislation is to give you water-tight protection in addition to that. Your investments are safe,” he reiterated.

Speaking on behalf of the Ambassador of Germany to South Africa, the Minister of Economics and Global Issues at the Embassy of Germany, Mr Andreas Kunne urged the German businesspeople to stop reading negative stories about South Africa but to come to the country so they can see the good work that has been done in the past 20 years. He said South Africa and Germany needed to work together on projects that will promote education and training.

Kunne also added that German operations in South Africa had a good story to tell and this was seen through the commitment of many German companies present in South Africa.

Issued by: The Department of Trade and Industry