Bilateral trade with South Africa on the upbeat

17 May '08

2 min read

A Joint Economic Committee was formed and launched on May 15 by Mr Doris Leuthard, Switzerland Economic Minister and Mr Mandisi Mpahlwa, South African Trade and Industry Minister.

This committee which held its first meeting in Zurich on May 14 will hold sessions once every year in Switzerland and South Africa alternatively. This is likely to make interactions more frequent between representatives of Government and business community of both the countries, providing them with a platform to raise and discuss concerning issues.

During the time of the initiation of the committee, the Memorandum of Understanding pronounced the main objective as strengthening mutual cooperation and trade between Switzerland and South Africa.

This memorandum was signed by Foreign Ministers Micheline Calmy-Rey of Switzerland and Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma of South Africa on March 8.

Economic relation between the two countries was triggered by the enforcement of EFTA-SACU agreement on May 1.

For Switzerland, South Africa has proved to be the largest export market in the African continent taking bilateral trade volume to SFr1.85 billion in 2007.

In the same year, exports from South Africa amounted to SFr1 billion while that of Switzerland totaled SFr805 billion. Besides, at the end of 2006, Swiss direct investment was valued at about SFr5 billion.

Experts hope that these figures can be raised significantly in the next few years fetching high revenues to both the countries.

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