"Cape Town – Cabinet Ministers from the United Kingdom and South Africa have agreed to prioritise greater trade between the two countries. In the tenth South Africa – UK Bilateral Forum held in Cape Town this week an agreement was made to not only boost trade though the SA-UK Business Council but also to grow the pool of South African entrepreneurs. “We want to redouble our efforts to expand trade,” said UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs William Hague at the event. Ministers in attendance agreed to work to doubling trade levels between the two countries by 2015. “We are still committed to doubling our trade targets by 2015, although the financial crisis has put a dampener on our plans,” said SA International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane. “We were hoping the green shoots would be green plants by now. We haven’t moved at the speed we anticipated because of global economic challenges.” The idea of running a bilataral youth forum to boost youth entrepreneurship was also touted. It was suggested that such a forum be run parallel to the SA-UK Business Council. Earlier this year the UK International Development secretary Justine Greening said they would be cutting the aid programme to South Africa from 2015. According to a report on Polity.org.za the UK is South Africa’s 7th largest export market and the largest source of foreign direct investment. Both Hague and Nkoana-Mashabane agreed that their respective countries shared close and deep relations, which they intended to entrench further. The bilateral forum focused on issues ranging from boosting trade and investment to the sensitive issue of visa requirements. South Africa is pushing hard for South Africans to return to a “visa free” status when visiting the UK, but according to reports the UK government are unwilling to budge on this issue."
Posted on: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 08:25:51 +0000
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