SAVANT opens up online trade and industry page for businesses

One of the main objectives of the campaign is to strengthen existing trade and industry links with overseas industry, and generate further global awareness around local innovation, product as well as delivery of service and technology in order to establish fresh ties.

Founding partners, members and industry representatives can now log on to the website (www.savant.co.za) and click through the Trade & Investment opportunities page to view details of tenders put out.

"This facility links South African businesses up with international trade and investment. It is a valuable and strategic addition to the website, a central component of the campaign. Our intention is to build on this foundation. Obviously, the more local businesses are exposed to international tender processes, the more likely they are to be involved. This is a positive development in that it shows that the initiative is making progress," comments Saré Grobler, project manager: ICT and Electronics division, Trade and Investment South Africa, the dti.

The page also serves as an administration tool to ensure that adequate contact, updated information and relevant details are presented to all parties. This, says Grobler, also fulfils another SAVANT obligation – to increase publicity and awareness around South Africa in terms of its ICTE capacity and overall offering.

"Our aim is to facilitate as much as possible in the way of business correspondence, communication, deals and partnerships. This is the main reason why SAVANT was established and it remains our core responsibility. We believe the country has a lot to offer, especially in terms of specific areas such as IT training & certification, Niche software and niche application enhancement, wireless development, Infrastructure in Africa and Application Hosting for Africa, Call Centres, Business Process Outsourcing and a Pilot Laboratory or Test Market," adds Grobler.