By Reaven D’Souza
Managing Editor
The level of Kuwaiti investments in South Africa has almost tripled in the last three years to reach three billion dollars, disclosed visiting South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, H.E. Dr. Naledi Pandor during an interview with The Times Kuwait.
During her short first visit to the country. Dr Pandor met with Prime Minister H.H. Sheikh Sabah Al Khaled Al Sabah and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Al Nasser Al Sabah, with whom she had wide ranging discussions.
The official visit witnessed the signing of bilateral agreements between the two friendly countries to further consolidate the existing strong Kuwait-South Africa relations. The bilateral agreements sought to provide a strengthened legal framework that would allow the two countries to vigorously pursue trade, economic, political relations, and matters of mutual interest to the two countries in the global arena.
“We have now formally established a joint commission between Kuwait and South Africa which will be chaired at the minister level,” Dr. Pandor revealed.
Regarding her meetings, she said that they had primarily discussed two main issues, which were increased investment by Kuwait in South Africa and South African businesses to be encouraged to invest in Kuwait. “So we have agreed that we would like to have our head of state to visit Kuwait and he would bring a business delegation so that the South African private sector could see the opportunities in Kuwait,” she pointed out.
The other area of cooperation that was agreed upon was to strengthen people-to-people exchanges, especially in the creative sector.
Dr. Pandor revealed that they had also signed two agreements one was on the avoidance of double taxation, which she said would greatly benefit those investing in South Africa. The Kuwaiti government has welcomed the signing of that, but of course, it still has to be ratified by the parliament of Kuwait, nevertheless, it is a big step forward in our relations.
She added that both sides had also acknowledged and agreed on the need for improving exports between the two countries. The exports from South Africa were mainly agricultural like livestock and citrus fruit and she said there was a need to diversify the basket so that they could have greater trade.
Regarding the impact of the pandemic, Dr. Pandor explained that their economy had been hit very hard by the COVID-19 crisis because they had to take very strict measures in order to protect their people and had to close their economy for almost three months and many jobs were lost as a result. The tourism sector has also been hit hard and is struggling to recover.
She disclosed that the government had identified the sectors most affected and that they were going to focus investments in them, which included mining, manufacturing in textile and leather, tourism, renewable energy resources and logistics which was the expansion of the port in Durban.
South Africa was marching forward with great potential and Dr. Pandor’s visit to the region came at a time of great significance. Dr. Pandor also discussed joint collaboration in R&D, pointing out that as developing countries “we have sat waiting for a vaccine, we should have been developing a vaccine ourselves so we agreed with the minister that we will invest in science and innovation partnerships between our universities to increase the capacity of innovations between Kuwait and South Africa.”
On the political front, Dr. Pandor praised Kuwait’s leadership for their vision and farsightedness. She pointed out that even President Mandela visited Kuwait during his time as President of South Africa. “The relations have carried on well and we would like to build stronger relations in the people-to-people area and in the political domain. In the past two years, when Kuwait served as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, we worked very closely as South Africa was also a non-permanent member then.”
She said Kuwait supported South Africa on many African resolutions and also worked very well together. “We have found that we are not only very good partners at the UN level but also on bilateral country to country bilateral level.”
“In South Africa, historically we believe we cannot rest until the people of Palestine enjoy freedom. So this is our position and I shared with the minister that countries with the Gulf should assume their responsibility, not to desert the people of Palestine but to ensure we stand with them so that they have a proper state and they enjoy human rights as we all do, and I think I got assurance that we share that,” the visiting minister revealed.
Dr Pandor also said she hoped to see an increase in students from Kuwait, pointing out that there were already more than 50 Kuwaiti students studying in various postgraduate courses in the country. Kuwaitis have also invested in diverse areas from property, agriculture to mining in South Africa.
Regarding relations with the region, she noted that South Africa has always had good relations with the Gulf countries, and pointed out that President Ramaphosa laid great emphasis on economic collaboration and growth with the region, particularly UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait.
Dr. Pandor also emphasised that they believed that the Gulf was important for peace in the Middle East. “If the Gulf countries assume their responsibility, they will help achieve peace and you will not achieve stability if these six states are not playing a role,” she pointed out.
