Dubai: The premier of South Africa's Western Cape region said yesterday she wanted to treble trade ties with the UAE over the next few years.
Helen Zille, who is leading a government and business delegation to Abu Dhabi, said trade between the UAE and the Western Cape was moving in the right direction but not fast enough.
"There is enormous potential but it needs to grow faster, especially given that South Africa, and the Western Cape in particular, has such a large capacity and solid fundamentals," she said.
Broaden opportunities
"The purpose of the visit is to deepen and broaden the opportunities for trade and investment both ways. Abu Dhabi is an international hub and a springboard for further expansion of trade and investment in areas as far afield as Syria, Lebanon and India. We have a well established platform because there is already balanced trade between the Western Cape and Abu Dhabi but we want to extend that substantially".
The Western Cape business delegation consisted of companies from a wide variety of sectors including agri-processing, technology, defence, financial services, real estate and mining. The UAE represents 2.3 per cent of the Western Cape's exports.
Alan Winde, Western Cape's Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, said: "Our trade into the UAE in 2009 was 1.2 billion rand (Dh644.4 million) and we believe we can treble that number over the next few years".
The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The area is home to approximately 4.2 million people and it makes the third highest contribution to the country's gross domestic product.
Gerrit van Rensburg, Western Cape's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that food exports from the region to the UAE had increased by 334 per cent during the period from 2001 to 2009. He also said the Western Cape's thoroughbred industry offered many opportunities for Gulf investors.
"Western Cape-bred horses are well known in the UAE. This is reflected in the fact that horses from the Western Cape have been awarded the Dubai Horse of the Year award four times in the past 10 years. It is also five times cheaper to stable and train race horses in the Western Cape than in the UK," he said.
"We offer quarantine and veterinarian services of international standards, making the Western Cape the logical location for Gulf horse owners during the hot Gulf summer months," he added.
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