South Africa’s diplomatic missions across the globe stand ready to mobilise R2 trillion by 2028, with a particular focus on increasing intra-Africa trade, which stands at 17% of total trade.
This was according to Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Alvin Botes, during the debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa's State of the Nation Address this week.
He said that in 2021 SA had exported more to Africa (R385 billion) than to the European Union (R355 billion).
Botes said the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) covered a market of 1.2 billion people in Africa, with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of US$2.5 trillion.
He told Parliament that AfCFTA would increase intra-African trade by up to 52.3% and expand the size of Africa’s economy to US$29 trillion by 2050, as estimated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
As the only African country in the G20 and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), as well as a key strategic partner of the European Union, SA had continued to place the African continent and the Global South on the agenda.
Botes said a critical priority for 2023 was South Africa’s chairmanship of BRICS.
“The Global South is elated with the re-election of Brazilian President Lula da Silva, and we welcome his support for your leadership in BRICS.”
In addition, he said one of the issues that would be discussed in BRICS was how to restructure the global, political, economic and financial architecture so that it became more balanced, representative, inclusive, and equitable.
He said the eighth South Africa-European Union Summit would be hosted on home soil in the first half of 2023.
“I wish to reiterate the South African government’s appreciation for the continued EU support to development co-operation and the EU’s support during the pandemic and to Biovac and the mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub in South Africa,” he said.
“We further appreciate the technical assistance received from the EU related to the possible greylisting of South Africa by the Financial Action Task Force.” – SAnews.gov.za
