The National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) held business meetings with government officials, black business leaders, business and industry associations at the Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) offices in Johannesburg yesterday.
The aim was to form partnerships and explore new business opportunities between black economic empowerment (BEE) companies in the local ICT sector and US minority companies.
Harriet Michel, president of the NMSDC, told journalists at a meeting held at the Hilton Hotel in Sandton yesterday that US minority business enterprises (MBEs) had been locked in meetings with local BEE companies throughout the day, to try build mutual relationships and plan business partnerships for the sector.
"The purpose of the meetings is to get more work done in assisting BEE companies. This will enable local ICT companies and the NMSDC members to set realistic goals for themselves. The outcome of the meetings will depend on individual companies but I`m positive that something good will come out of the meetings," said Michel.
The MBEs will work with BUSA, the Black IT Forum and the Department of Trade and Industry to assist them with the process of integrating black-owned ICT companies into the country`s economy.
IBM, Motorola and Cisco Systems are sponsoring the visit. At the news briefing, representatives from these companies committed themselves to the transformation of SA. They indicated they have been supporting minority suppliers throughout the world and are willing to do the same for SA.
Boosting integration
Part of the NMSDC mission is also to help small and medium enterprises to meet their BEE procurement objectives, said Michel.
She said many multinationals operating in the developing countries have not made enough progress in integrating local people into the mainstream economy.
"The delegates hope to seek opportunities and play an active role for black-owned businesses. Many of the corporate US companies are based here. There are already existing business prospects in SA," said Michel.
"The meetings will also give the US delegates an opportunity to highlight issues that they face within their economy and they will also use their business experience to help local companies to grow their businesses.
"We applaud the South African government for the aggressive BEE programme it has introduced to transform the economy. The best way to grow the small businesses is to provide them with financial ownership. This is the second visit to SA by the NMSDC and we hope it will not be the last.
Michel is confident there will be positive outcomes from the meetings and that "solid decisions" will be made.
"Our hope for the meetings is that they will eventually be solid business deals and partnerships formed in SA. It takes a long time for businesses to reach a comfort level - to develop, understand and know the companies they will be dealing with. We have to get to a point where we can publicly declare that procurement deals have been made," said Michel.
"We are not only reaffirming our commitment to increase business opportunities between MBE and BEE companies, but also pledge that there will be more of these business exchanges to come in the future."
The NMSDC, formed in 1972, provides a direct link between corporate US companies and minority-owned businesses, and increased procurement and business opportunities for minority businesses of all sizes.
Delegates from the US represent companies such as the Atlanta Communications Company, Avion Systems, Komplete Systems Integrators and SpringBoard Technology.
The delegates will meet again at IBM`s offices in Sandton today.
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