“Italy Meets South Africa – Business opportunities and instruments for Italian and South African Companies”

The business-matching digital platform created by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Simest S.p.A. to further promote the internationalisation of Italian companies in South Africa was launched yesterday in Johannesburg in hybrid mode, with more than 200 companies taking part. The Ambassador of Italy to South Africa Paolo Cuculi opened the event, organised together with the Italian-South African Chamber of Commerce and the ITA Trade Agency office in Johannesburg, with the participation of the trade associations ‘Business Unity South Africa’ and ‘South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry,’ and the ‘Development Bank of Southern Africa,’ emphasizing the high complementarity of the economic systems of the two countries and the encouraging dynamics of bilateral trade: “After the difficult years of the pandemic, Italian exports to South Africa have shown a significant capacity to recover, exceeding €2.3 billion for the first time in 2022. In addition to being Italy’s main trading partner in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa is an ideal gateway to the rest of the continent, also in view of the progressive consolidation of the African Free Trade Area.
Through Cassa Depositi e Prestiti’s platform, aimed in particular at small and medium-sized enterprises, over 500 virtual meetings between Italian and foreign companies have taken place in just over a year. This tool will now also allow South African economic operators to get in touch with a large pool of Italian companies, thus enabling them to explore new business partnerships and investment opportunities.