South African Aerospace, Maritime, and Defence Export Council (SAAMDEC) CEO Sandile Ndlovu urged the South Africa defence industry to cultivate a healthy interest in the Egyptian market.
Speaking at the outward trade and investment mission (OTIM) in Egypt, Mr Ndlovu said the export council’s mission was spearheaded on a two-pronged approach.
“The first was to formally introduce the South African defence industry to the market and acknowledging the efforts of individual companies that have been interacting with the Egyptian defence. The second was to identify areas where South Africa and Egypt could cooperate in the defence space8,” he said.
He said that their first interactions with the Egyptian private sector occurred during a defence exhibition held in Egypt last year. Adding that with the interactions they have had during the event, they have found that there is a lot of interest to cooperate with them specifically on promotion and marketing their products in the private sector.
“What we have agreed on doing between ourselves and the Egyptian defence authorities is to streamline discussions by identifying specific areas where we could cooperate. In the meantime, because Egypt has such a huge buying capacity, they have also made an undertaking that they would forward more inquiries of their requirements to South Africa.” Said Ndlovu.
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He added that above all the co-producing and co-developing, they would begin to assist Egypt with their defence requirements in areas where South Africa has solutions.
Afriveyor technical business development manager Jonathan Alberts, who was also part of the business delegation, said that he had also made important progress on the mission as a first excursion.
“I came across this Egyptian businessperson who had demonstrated an interest in my industrial vacumation systems machines for construction and mining. I will be communicating with him to schedule an appointment where he would visit our workshop in Johannesburg in January. From then on we will begin engaging on business and sign the necessary licensing agreements and handle all subsequent legalities,” he said.
The objective of the outward trade and investment mission (OTIM) is to increase bilateral trade and investment between South Africa other African countries. The planned activities of the mission include trade and investment seminar, business to business meetings and site visits.
