South Africa companies could develop trade with Romania, European area via Constanta Port

South African companies could use the Port of Constanta as a logistics hub within the trade operations with Romania and the European area, the president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania (CCIR), Mihai Daraban, told Thursday the Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa, Alvin Botes, during the visit made by the latter to the institution's headquarters.

During the meeting in Bucharest, the two officials approached topics of major interest for the business environment in Romania and South Africa and identified the optimal lines of collaboration for the volume of trade between the two countries to increase in the medium and long term, a CCIR release sent to AGERPRES reads.

"The port of Constanta can become a logistics hub for South African operators, for both Romania and the entire region. From our point of view, maritime transport is the most viable solution in the perspective of intensifying the trade exchanges between Romania and South Africa. At the level of Constanta Port, the activities are carried out by private port operators, but the port administration can offer for concession ample land from the same premises. At the same time, the Constanta Port has a storage capacity of 5 million tons of iron ore, which represents an opportunity for South African producers to create stocks within the free zone of the port in order to be able to serve more quickly the demand for such raw materials in Romania and beyond," the CCIR president, Mihai Daraban, said, as quoted in the press release.

In turn, the Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa mentioned that the Government of his country intended to develop a new port in the south-eastern part of South Africa.

Currently, South Africa is conducting a recalibration of economic diplomacy because as of January 1, 2021, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) has entered into force, a document that may increase the perspective of cooperation at bilateral level. South Africa is thus becoming a conducive destination for investors who aim to develop their businesses on the African continent, thus being able to access the facilities offered by the agreement. Our government intends to develop a new port in the south-eastern part of South Africa, so that the maritime and naval field will become an extremely important one in terms of cooperation between the two states, Alvin Botes assessed.

According to the data of the National Trade Register Office, the total value of the Romania-South Africa trade was 168.92 million euros at the end of last year and over 45 million euros at the end of March 2021, the CCIR press release states.

At the level of August 2021, 51 South African companies were active in Romania, with a total value of the subscribed share capital of 5.2 million euros.