MONDAY, 3.30PM
TRADE and Industry minister Alec Erwin leads a delegation of 54 businessmen and government officials to South Korea and Japan to drum up investment in South Africa’s vehicle, metals, chemicals and electronics industries. They leave tomorrow.
South Korea is South Africa’s 13th largest trading partner, with export growth up 40 percent from 1996, and R220 million in investment in South Africa since 1994. Trade officials say this figure, just 1,4 percent of the total amount South Korea has invested abroad, is disappointing. Erwin will spend four days in South Korea and to meet the ministers of trade, energy, agriculture and forestry, and with senior officials at large corporations like Daewoo, Samsung, Hyundai and Ssanygong.
Erwin will follow up with three days in Tokyo, meeting his counterpart in the Japanese government, among others. Japan is South Africa’s fourth-largest trading partner and second most important export destination after Britain, with its investment in South Africa at R1,6 billion.