EDC meeting promotes cooperation between Dubai and Gauteng Province in South Africa

The South African delegation was led by Her Excellency Agnes Nyamande-Pitso, the South African Consul General and Mr Blake Mosley-Lefatola, CEO of the Gauteng Economic Development Agency (GEDA) and included several other high ranking Gauteng officials.
The focus of the meeting, hosted by Engineer Saed Al Awadi, Chief Executive Officer of EDC at the Grand Hyatt Dubai, was the development and promotion of bilateral trade opportunities between the two regions. Discussions centred on the organization of joint promotional trade activities and the sharing of information that can be positively used to grow the economies of the two regions.

Engineer Saed Al Awadi, Chief Executive Officer, Dubai Export Development Corporation, said:

"EDC is working to expand trade opportunities with many markets, including that of South Africa, which presents significant export opportunities for Dubai based businesses."

"The Province of Gauteng is considered to be South Africa's commercial hub, generating over a third of South Africa's GDP, and hosting the headquarters of most of the country's major state, academic, research, mining, financial and commercial institutions. Similarly to the EDC, GEDA is committed to working to further strengthen trade ties between the two strong sister economic regions," said Mr Blake Mosley-Lefatola, CEO of the Gauteng Economic Development Agency.

Exports from the UAE to South Africa reached Dhs2.3bn in 2007 whilst exports from South Africa to the UAE reached almost Dhs2.7bn in the same period.

The discussions with South Africa are part of a broader campaign by EDC to develop and enhance trade relationships with countries across the world. In conducting these discussions, EDC is working to uncover investment opportunities that will benefit both economies involved in the trade process.