Johannesburg - Stella Ndabeni Abrahams, Minister of Small Business and Development, welcomed the Pakistan delegation on Tuesday as the guest of honour ahead of the 3rd Pakistan-Africa Trade Development Conference, which was launched at the Sandton Convention Centre.
For the first time, the Pakistan-Africa Trade Development Conference and Exhibition is being hosted in South Africa, bringing hundreds of international brands to our shores.
According to Abrahams and her counterpart, Federal Minister for Commerce, Naveed Qamar, this exhibition marks an incredible opportunity for South African businesses — from small to large — to find new partners, suppliers, and technologies to grow.
Abrahams encouraged more trade partnerships between South Africa and the people of Pakistan, adding that efforts such as these should be encouraged and taken forward to boost the economic opportunities for entrepreneurs from both countries and other regions.
"As South Africa, we welcomed this opportunity. While we exhibit and showcase the talent that we have in Africa and Pakistan, our task is to say, 'How do we take it forward? How do we increase where we are at for the benefit of both peoples?’
"We are looking forward to ensuring that we build an ecosystem that will enable our people to increase the supplies they make to Pakistan, as much as enabling an ecosystem that allows people from Pakistan to do business in our country in a legal trading form. This will become the centre of a trade agreement because we do not want to see our people fighting. It is about how we learn from each other and how we collaborate so that we can both increase our economies," Abrahams told guests on Tuesday.
The two-day trade event, which begins in earnest on Wednesday, November 30, and ends on December 1, will see local entrepreneurs meet their Pakistani counterparts gather for a day of networking and Pakistani-infused cuisine ahead of the main two-day expo, where more than 160 exhibitors from 16 different sectors from Pakistan, South Africa, and other partner countries will showcase their wares in a bid to kick-start long-lasting business opportunities.
Both ministers encouraged the need to strengthen business and trade ties and the importance of collaboration between the two countries, with Abraham saying bridge zones are important ways to empower small businesses to grow their service offerings in a competitive business environment.
"One of the things we are hoping to do is to engage our counterparts in Pakistan on an SME bridge zone. In the trade engagements that we have, we should identify where small businesses can assist. For example, a small company may not be able to build an entire car, but they would still like to be involved in creating doors, handles, or windows. "We want to know what the capabilities of our small and medium enterprises are that can complement the work being done by cooperatives," she said.
According to Qamar, the scope of the conference and its exhibition offering covers a variety of business sectors, including but not limited to IT to pottery, home and kitchenware, pharmaceuticals, textiles to surgical instruments, leather goods to pumps, electro-mechanical machinery to food, or spices to the world-famous Himalayan salt.
"There is plenty of opportunity to be found. This exhibition will be a hub of intelligence and excellence, as hundreds of people have ventured here for this to be a caucus of attention on goods and services. The businesses that have come from a number of countries in the region have all come here to take something away, either in terms of a deal, a contract, an MOU, or even a business card as a point of contact for the future. There is something for everybody here," Qamar said.
The Star