Egypt and South Africa have launched a Joint Business Council to boost trade, including in mining, agriculture, renewable energy and mobility, and economic relations between the nations.

Key initiatives of the joint business council include the launch of a mining and minerals partnership, an automotive and new-energy mobility partnership and an engineering and infrastructure partnership.

The council will also seek to establish an agriculture and agroprocessing corridor and a renewable energy and green industries platform between the countries.

Additionally, the bilateral council will establish an Africa joint venture investment fund that will serve as a private sector investment vehicle targeting companies and projects that can expand beyond the two domestic markets.

Egypt is South Africa’s largest export market in North Africa and is one of Africa’s most diversified and dynamic economies.

There are solid opportunities for South African companies in the medium to long term and a platform for commercial activities in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, says the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic).

Bilateral trade between South Africa and Egypt has been increasing, with data published by Statistics South Africa showing direct bilateral trade of R4.3-billion in 2025 – a 26% increase from R3.4-billion in 2024.

South Africa’s exports to Egypt also grew, by 21%, to R1.6-billion in 2025 from R1.3-billion in 2024.

South Africa had a trade deficit with Egypt from 2021 to 2025. South Africa is Egypt’s forty-sixth export destination and Egypt's fifty-eighth highest source of imports in 2025, the dtic says.

The establishment of the joint council deepens bilateral trade and investment by creating practical commercial partnerships between South African and Egyptian companies, while using both countries as gateways into Southern, North and wider African markets, the dtic says.

South Africa also participated in the Africa Automotive Investment Forum under the theme of “Unlocking Africa’s Automotive Industry Potential under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)”, which was held on the margins of the inaugural Alamein Africa Forum, in Egypt, on October 2.

For South Africa, this forum provided an opportunity to position the country as a key manufacturing and investment anchor within an emerging continental automotive value chain, while strengthening linkages between South African automotive producers, African markets, component manufacturers, logistics networks and sources of capital.

The forum brought together policymakers, governments, original-equipment manufacturers, component manufacturers, suppliers, investors, financiers, logistics providers and development partners to identify bankable investment opportunities, strengthen regional automotive production capabilities and advance the development of integrated continental supply chains.

“The automotive sector was a clear beneficiary of this partnership. We now have a strategic platform to translate the market-access opportunities and automotive rules of origin established under the AfCFTA into concrete investment, industrial partnership and integrated regional automotive value chain opportunities for South Africa into Egypt,” says Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau.

The three major opportunities for South African exports to Egypt are rubber, including pneumatic tyres used on motor cars, motorcycle parts and accessories, and seats used for motor vehicles.

These three major products represent an import displacement opportunity of between R22.4-million and R44.8-million for South Africa, he says.

Further, a key strategic focus of the forum was to explore the development of an integrated automotive corridor linking Cairo to Cape Town and leverage the AfCFTA to connect Southern, Eastern and Northern African automotive production systems, expand intra-African trade, promote investment and deepen regional value chains.