Fourteen South African IT companies and two politicians will leave for Silicon Valley this weekend on a trade mission they hope will bring foreign investment and new technology to SA.
The mission is an initiative by the Gauteng Economic Development Agency (Geda), which focuses its activities on IT, telecommunications and the automotive business; sectors it believes are well suited to attract investment.
"We are taking two distinct categories of companies," says Geda CEO Charles Jonker. "The first believes in software development in-house. The second specialises in reseller agreements. With the developers we hope to push up the local capacity utilisation and start joint software development locally. We hope the resellers will bring new technology into the market."
The companies include Ariel Technologies, BCSNet, Bright Spark Technology, Choice Technologies, HRK Retail Computer Services, Intavision, Vesta Technology, and local representatives from international companies Cisco, Oracle, Siemens and Hewlett-Packard.
"The intention is to introduce each of these companies to between five and seven Silicon Valley companies each, all of whom have shown interest in doing business with SA," says Jonker.
The local representatives of the four international companies will promote further investment from their parent companies.
Geda is a section 21 company that is loath to describe itself as non-profit. "We are very private sector focused and also commercially focused," says Jonker. "The emphasis is on recovering cost. We define section 21 as 'not purely for commercial purposes`."
The agency is responsible for projects such as the planned high-speed train between Pretoria and Johannesburg and the technology incubation Innovation Hub project in Pretoria.
The mission will be led by Gauteng premiere Mbhazima Shilowa and the provincial MEC for economic affairs and finance Jabu Moleketi.
The Gauteng Provincial Government, which shares representation on the Geda board with local government from Johannesburg, largely funds the agency. Geda`s primary purpose is to promote the governmental economic policy objectives for Gauteng, but Jonker says the agency, and the mission, are not political in nature.
"This is not a political mission. I think we have reengineered the provincial government`s approach to these missions. We are taking 15 business people and two political people on this trip, so our ratio is very business focused."
The delegates will each pay between $7 000 and $15 000 for the week-long mission, which gets them one-on-one meetings with interested American firms and a chance to present their companies to a seminar of San Francisco IT businessmen.
Jonker says the agency screened 3 500 companies in the Silicon Valley area through its relationship with the Silicon Valley export council, the mayor`s office in San Jose and a full-time employee stationed there. "The companies we were left with really are interested in doing business."
Jonker says a previous mission to Israel yielded more than 20 technology joint ventures between companies there and local players. Similar missions are planned for Singapore, Austria and London.
Share
