JEDDAH, 24 April 2008 — A South African delegation is currently in the Kingdom exploring prospects for Saudi investment and expansion of bilateral trade.
“Our bilateral trade was SR11.5 billion in 2007, 13 percent more than the previous year, but we see tremendous scope to increase it,” Premier of the Western Cape Ebrahim Rasool told reporters here on Tuesday night. There is a yawning gap in the bilateral trade, with South Africa importing over SR10 billion worth of oil and petrochemical products and accounting for about SR1.3 billion exports, said Rasool who is heading a 30-member team of government officers and businessmen.
“Our economic ties have remained strong and we want them to go beyond oil and petrochemicals,” said Rasool, who is on an official visit. “We need to diversify and identify key areas in which both countries could expand its ties. We have expertise and skills in all fields of activity and we need to offer them for the development of the Kingdom where six new economic cities are under way,” he added.
He said that he had meetings with Riyadh Governor Prince Salman, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, chairman of Kingdom Holding Company, and Sultan ibn Salman, secretary general of the Supreme Commission for Tourism, and acquainted them with the tremendous investment potential the country had, especially in the tourism-rich Western Cape Province, which is in the southwest of South Africa and accounts for a majority of the country’s two million Muslim population. South Africa’s population totals 52 million. “The province is developing rapidly and suits Arab and Muslim interests,” he added.