The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is in the throes of establishing a “platform” through which it and other State-owned companies (SOCs) and government organisations can share information on available tenders and contracts in other African States with South African businesses eyeing expansion into the continent.

While African governments provided the DTI, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, State development finance institutions and other government bodies with “lots of information” on market opportunities in their respective States, these institutions lacked a channel through which this intelligence could be shared, DTI Central and East Africa International Trade and Economic Development divison director Lebogang Makoloi said on Tuesday.

“We receive information on contracts and tenders in many industries, such as manufacturing and services but, as government, we don’t have a way to distribute this, so we send it to the various business chambers on an ad hoc basis.

“We realised that we also needed to create a platform through which private companies can indicate where they are experiencing issues and bottlenecks, and have been working on such a platform for the past year and a half,” he told a Frontier Forum panel discussion, in Sandton.

The platform would further look to establish points of contact for businesses at the various African trade departments and foreign missions, enabling companies easier access to information related to local market conditions and prospects.

“We are aware that some big companies go into countries without even contacting the foreign mission and it is only once they get burned [that] they turn to the foreign office for [assistance],” Makoloi asserted.

He added that a challenge to the formation of the envisaged body lay in aligning the various stakeholders of South Africa’s export industry into the continent, including export councils, business chambers, industry associations, State-owned companies and private sector businesses.

The DTI was currently at a point in the formation process at which it could introduce the private sector to the planned organisation through the various chambers and councils.

“We will first embark on individual consultation before bringing everyone on board, but there’s still lots to be finalised, such as the structure of the body, whether it will report to an inter-Ministerial committee and the possible appointment of a permanent CEO.

“It’s important that we look at this systematically and that it’s implemented as soon as possible,” he remarked.

Makoloi told Engineering News Online on the sidelines of the event that the department would likely have the platform finalised and launched by the end of next year.

He elaborated that the body would differ from export promotion and development grouping Team Exports South Africa, which had limited reach and did not represent all stakeholders, such as State-owned companies.

“Everyone needs to understand that the strategy is for all stakeholders in the government and the private sector; it won’t be silo-based,” he noted.

Companies affiliated to the planned body would, meanwhile, be expected to rally around government’s African export strategy, which underlined the need for profit-seeking activities by South African companies to be accompanied by social investment and development.

“The DTI’s strategy is clear: we need to approach [intra-African trade] from a developmental regionalist perspective, and we need to punt this. I understand that the private sector is driven by profits, but our hope is that, through this platform, we acknowledge both the profit and developmental imperative.

“This will send a positive message to the rest of Africa that we’re not just coming to take and then leave,” he said.

The body would further allow greater alignment between companies’ and the State’s activities on the continent, driving an integrated “South Africa Inc” approach.

“When it comes to this platform, we will need to talk as one, otherwise we’ll have good policies and platforms without having any results,” Makoloi concluded.