African businessmen arriving to Belgrade – Big business forum in autumn 2017

More than a hundred businessmen from South Africa and other Sub-Saharan African countries are to take part in the big Serbian-African business forum with companies from Serbia and the Western Balkans region this autumn in Belgrade, the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia (CCIS) reported on June 29.

They will use the forum to establish contacts and have talks about concrete business arrangements, which, according to Marko Cadez, the president of the CCIS, who is visiting Johannesburg, will “open another door to producers from Serbia, but also from the entire region, to a greater export to the huge and predominantly import-dependent Sub-Saharan African market, which encompasses 49 countries with a billion citizens”.

At the same time, African businessmen are provided with an opportunity to export their products through Serbia, as a distribution center, to the markets of the EU, Russia and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The forum has been supported by the government and the president of the Republic of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, who talked to Cadez about the possibilities of strengthening economic ties between Serbia and South Africa, but also the entire Sub-Saharan Africa.

Cadez said that, aside from the economic cooperation, there was a possibility of cooperation through joint projects and the transfer of knowledge, technologies and investments.

– The biggest potential for mutual investments lies in agriculture, construction, infrastructure, mechanical industry and ecology – Cadez stated following the meeting with the president of South Africa.

As part of the preparations for the upcoming investment forum and taking a look at the possibilities of enhancing the economic cooperation, Cadez had several bilateral meetings with representatives of state institutions, business associations and South African companies.

Cades met the ministers of agriculture and culture, Senzeni Zokwana and Nathi Mthethwa, officials of the government's departments for trade, industry and finances, representatives of the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the ruling political party in the Republic of South Africa.

Cadez also used his visit to Johannesburg to meet with Serbian businessmen working in South Africa in order to exchange information on the operations in the southern African market, and he is completing his visit by talking with the members of the joint chamber of commerce of Serbia and South Africa, a business association founded in April.

The President of the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia is visiting South Africa at the invitation by Zolani Mkiva, president of the Mkiva Humanitarian Foundation.

Although the merchandise trade of Serbia with the Sub-Saharan African countries has been growing in the past years, both the trade and the total economic cooperation are very modest. In 2016, Serbia exported goods worth USD 71.3 million to those markets, while mostly importing raw materials in the amount of USD 96.3 million.

The list of Serbian exported products includes processed tobacco, machines and devices, road motor vehicles and car tires, whereas the list of the most imported products from the Sub-Saharan Africa includes cocoa, unsorted goods, natural rubber and rubber products, coffee and coffee substitutes, stone, sand, granite and others.

Privredna komora Srbije

CCIS

Marko Cadez

Sub Saharan Africa

Serbian African business forum

Jacob Zuma

Senzeni Zokwana

Nathi Mthethwa

Development Bank of Southern Africa

Zolani Mkiva

Mkiva Humanitarian Foundation