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SA, Turkey to boost electronics trade

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 15 Nov 2017
From left to right: Mehmet Kavaklioglu, vice-chairman of the board of TET; Sindi Mzamo, treasurer of the Black Business Council; HakanKizartici, deputy director general, Ministry of Economy, Republic of Turkey; Chiboni Evans, CEO of the SA Electrotechnical Export Council; and AtillaEren, board member of TET.
From left to right: Mehmet Kavaklioglu, vice-chairman of the board of TET; Sindi Mzamo, treasurer of the Black Business Council; HakanKizartici, deputy director general, Ministry of Economy, Republic of Turkey; Chiboni Evans, CEO of the SA Electrotechnical Export Council; and AtillaEren, board member of TET.

South Africa's electro-technical sector met its Turkish counterpart for bilateral trade and investment talks in Sandton this week.

The business-to-business (B2B) talks with a 23-member Turkish electronics and electrical goods trade mission follow renewed Turkish-South African commitments to boost bilateral trade.

SA and Turkey have committed to strengthening trade and economic relations between the countries with the aim of increasing two-way bilateral trade and investment.

This emerged at the third session of the SA-Turkey Joint Economic Commission which was addressed by trade and industry minister Rob Davies and Turkish national education minister Ishmet Yilmaz recently in Pretoria.

Under the ambit of the Turkish Electro Technology Exporters' Association (TET), a professional body representing over 7 500 member companies, the Turkish trade talks showcased Turkish white goods, electronics, cables and electrical production and distribution equipment to South African importers, wholesalers, retailers and industry bodies, and paved the way for future partnerships across Africa.

Opening the B2B meetings, Chiboni Evans, CEO of the SA Electrotechnical Export Council, noted traditional approaches to export-import partnerships were falling away in the sector across Africa.

"The requirement for local content is becoming a strategic issue across Africa, particularly in electro-technical infrastructure projects," she noted.

"In South Africa, for example, state-owned enterprises have local content requirements across products such as cables, prepaid and smart meters, pylons, transformers and trains, among others. This is the case in many African countries. However, in many cases, countries do not have the capacity to meet these local content requirements."

To boost infrastructure development and economic growth, as well as build mutually beneficial business relations, foreign countries needed to take new, partner-focused approaches to trade with Africa, she said. "They must make some commitment to developing local partners and skills."

Turkey's fast-growing electronics, white goods and electrical components sector exports over $10 billion in goods to a global market annually.

The country is seeking broader trade ties with Africa across all sectors. Among other moves, Turkish Airlines is opening new direct routes to Africa and Turkey is planning to open new embassies in all African countries.

Mehmet Kavaklioglu, vice-chairman of the board of TET, says with over $20million in imports from SA and around $36 million in exports to SA last year, the TET believes there was significant room for bilateral trade growth.

He expresses the hope that the trade mission to SA, to be followed by a visit to Nigeria, would serve to boost trade ties across the white goods, electronics and electrical sectors of both countries.

Sindi Mzamo, treasurer of the Black Business Council, welcomed efforts to grow bilateral trade with Turkey and expressed optimism that the talks would result in concrete business outcomes and eventual skills transfer benefiting the South African economy.

"Power is a critical sector for development anywhere in the world, and electronics is power, so there is significant potential for mutually beneficial partnerships in this sector," she said.

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