SA for flourishing trade with Malawi
South Africa’s High Commissioner to Malawi Cassandra Mbuyane-Mokone has said her office is ready to create platforms and opportunities where trade between the two countries could continue to flourish.
Mbuyane-Mokona made the remarks last Friday during the launch of the inaugural 2015 Brand South Africa exhibition.
At the event, participating South African (SA) companies exhibited their goods and services to a cross section of Malawi representatives and also shared their corporate social responsibility initiatives that support and contribute to the socio-economic development of the people of Malawi.
Participating SA companies included South African Airways, Nedbank Malawi, Standard Bank, Intercape, DStv, Engen, Get Bucks, General Precision Engineering and Tracker.
Mbuyane-Mokone said increased trade between the two countries is of benefit to the citizens of the two countries with positive spin-offs for the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) region.
She said there is significant potential in a number of sectors in Malawi such as tourism and his office actively supports selling Malawi as a destination to South Africans in the same manner that SA is sold as a destination to Malawians.
“We will continue to pursue a strengthened relationship with the Malawi Ministry of Tourism to identify opportunities for South Africa to support the development of the Malawi tourism industry and to engage Malawians who are private players in the tourism industry,” she said.
On energy, Mbuyane-Mokone said South Africa recognises the immense potential the sector has and is pleased with the support the Malawi Government is giving to the sector, especially encouraging independent power producers.
To this end, she indicated that there are SA companies that are actively pursuing these opportunities.
Mbuyane-Mokone, however, was quick to admit that there are always challenges in these processes, but they can easily be dealt with through discussions.
The event was held to create a platform where participating companies could exhibit goods and services that they offer to the Malawi market to strengthen current relations and establishing new business links.
