Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa will pay working visits to Vietnam and Singapore next week, the presidency said on Sunday.
“The visits are aimed at strengthening bilateral political, economic, and trade relations between South Africa and the two countries,” his spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said.
The working visit to Vietnam on Monday and Tuesday was at the invitation of Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Đặng Though Ngọc Thịnh and would be used to break into new and possible areas of trade and investment to help unlock trade imbalances between South Africa and Vietnam, he said.
Bilateral trade between the two countries had grown significantly from R13.4 billion to R18.5 billion in 2015, making Vietnam the fourth largest trading partner of South Africa in the Asian region.
By 2015 South African imports from Vietnam amounted to R16.3 billion, up from R11.5 billion in 2014, while exports stood at R2.3 billion in 2015, up from R1.9 billion in 2014, thus creating a trade deficit for South Africa of R13.7 billion.
“Vietnam offers great trading opportunities for South African companies, particularly in the transport, mining sector, road, and infrastructure, including the defence industry. Vietnam is internationally recognised for its expertise in the field of missile defence systems,” Mamoepa said.
Ramaphosa’s visit would also seek to diversify South African exports to Vietnam by identifying new areas for market access of South African products. He would also explore possibilities of increasing the number of South African students receiving training in the maritime economy.
“Currently, there are six South African students studying at the Maritime University in Hai Phong, Hanoi. South Africa hopes to also increase study courses to include ship building. Vietnam’s shipbuilding industry is ranked 5th in the world with 60 ship building and repairing yards.”
The visit was also expected to culminate in a partnership between Vietnam and South Africa in the development of South Africa’s aquaculture sector. Vietnam had used aquaculture as one of their key development programmes to address poverty and unemployment.
Ramaphosa would conclude his visit to Vietnam on Tuesday, ahead of his planned visit to Singapore from October 5 to 7, Mamoepa said.
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