Speaking at a South African Chamber of Business function, in Johannesburg, he said that Germany was currently the South Africa's most important trading partner, adding that, over the past few years, the two nations' bilateral trade had enjoyed a yearly growth of some 10%. His forecast also comes a day after a senior US diplomat forecast South African-US trade to reach $10-billion in 2006, somewhat shy of the South Africa-Germany figure.
Adt noted that Germany-South Africa bilateral trade had crossed the €10-billion-a-year trade volume threshold, and that Germany was South Africa's biggest supplier, and its fourth-biggest customer.
“This booming trade is accompanied by significant direct investment from Germany in South Africa. Its volume amounts to in excess of €3-billion, and the investments are mainly greenfield ones, which has an important effect on employment creation,” he highlighted.
The some 700 German companies operating in South Africa directly employ some 90 000 people, and the amount of South African's directly or indirectly dependant on German salaries was well beyond a million, Adt said.
However, the South African and German governments had been having “detailed and frank” discussions, dealing with, in particular, problems that German small and medium enterprises had been experiencing in addressing the issue of black economic-empowerment (BEE) in South Africa.
“We acknowledge that social reforms are necessary in South Africa, and we are not trying to negotiate BEE, but we have pointed out where our companies perceive difficulties, and we have we have said that it it would be in the interest of South Africa attracting foreign-direct investment if these issues could be resolved,” Adt detailed. “But our role, as government, cannot go beyond passing on the message.”
He said that some of the problems that had arisen with BEE were over-beaurocratisation and a lack of transparency regarding the different levels of BEE.
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