This strategy is an integral part of the Overseas Business Network initiative (OBNi), a key programme of the British government launched by Prime Minister David Cameron in November 2012, that intends to stimulate and strengthen international business networks. The British government's target is to double annual exports to £1trillion and increase the number of UK exporters by 100,000 by 2020.
Judith Macgregor, British High Commissioner to South Africa, is patron of the Chamber. She is delighted at the revitalisation of the Chamber, which will help support the British government's ambition of meeting these trade targets and enhance business relations between British and South African companies.
Given the strong trading, political and social ties dating back more than 200 years that exist between South Africa and the UK, and that South Africa remains the UK's leading trade partner in Africa, it is among the primary countries being promoted to the UK's export market through the OBNi.
"With FDI stock of around £40bn, the UK remains one of the largest investors in South Africa. Almost 50% of the FDI stock in South Africa originates from the UK or from UK-based global companies, creating around 250,000 jobs. UK investment in South Africa is estimated to have grown by more than 130% in the past decade," explains David Dawson, chief executive of the British Chamber of Business in Southern Africa.
Likewise, the UK is the most favoured location for outward investment from SA to Europe. It rates among South Africa's top five trading partners, with four out of every five South African companies using the UK as a springboard for investing in Europe. Today there are more than 650 South African companies operating in the UK, including some of SA's biggest brands, such as Investec, Old Mutual and Discovery.
It is such trade success, and the opportunities for mutual trade benefit, that the renewed British Chamber of Business is helping to facilitate in South Africa. "The British Chamber of Business is the meeting place for British companies operating in South and Southern Africa, and South African companies with shared bilateral interests. The Chamber provides an organisational home for this business community and where necessary, a voice, and is the principal interlocutor between the business community and both governments," Dawson adds.
South African businesses wanting to take advantage of these opportunities are invited to become members of the British Chamber of Business. Among the many benefits members enjoy are access to relevant, informative events and conferences; advocacy at government level; political, policy and economic briefings from the British High Commission in Pretoria; and access to the offices of Prime Minister David Cameron's Special Trade Envoy to South Africa, Baroness Scotland.
