Bankok – A South African business delegation has arrived in Thailand for the Outward Selling and Investment Mission (OSIM), where they will profile the country as an investment destination of choice.
The delegation, which is supported by Department of Trade and Industry (the dti), will participate in various business-to-business meetings, site visits and trade and investment seminars, until Wednesday.
The Director of Golden Touch Manufacturing Jewellers, Mbulelo Singapi, from Uitenhage, in Port Elizabeth, who is part of the delegation, said his company was looking forward to meeting key decision makers and exchanging business ideas with the Thai businesspeople.
“The key is always to prepare before you get to these meetings and seminars so that you can always return with something tangible for your business to move forward,” added Singapi.
Singapi said despite being a small manufacturing company, they do have the capacity to produce any amount of order should they manage to sign deals in Thailand.
The objective of the OSIM, according to the department, is to create market access for South African value-added products, and services to enter Asian markets- especially for agro-processing, jewellery and automotive components sectors.
The choice of these two countries is informed by the dti’s diversification strategy, which aims to leverage market opportunities and ensure that South Africa’s exports to dynamic high growth markets are facilitated.
Total trade between Thailand and South Africa was R31.1 billion in 2013; with a trade balance of R22 billion in favour of Thailand.
South African exports to Thailand totalled R4.6 billion, while imports totalled R26.5 billion in the same year. South Africa mainly source special classification products such as vehicle parts which constitute 45% of imports.
