Italian businesses seek SA opportunities

Management consultant Paolo Borzatta is leading a fact-finding mission of about 100 Italian business leaders looking who are keen to invest in sub-Saharan Africa. Image: WN

Paolo Borzatta, the Senior Partner at The European House Ambrosetti (T-EHA) - a 50-year-old management consultancy firm - said about 100 chief executives were in Cape Town on a fact finding mission with the possible aim of establishing production plants in the country.

T-EHA is in Cape Town to hold its first summit on the African continent. "We want to use the summit to analyse the [investment] opportunities in South Africa.

"So the purpose of this summit is to create trust among business leaders in the two countries so that they can do business together and build long-term relationships," he said.

He said sub-Saharan Africa was booming and the gross domestic production (GDP) in the region is expected to grow by an average of 6% by 2015.

Energy tops the list on South Africa's economic agenda, with the country planning to build 42.3 GW of generation by 2030 in order to take the pressure off the existing infrastructure.

Cooperation at different levels

He said in the energy and agricultural sectors, cooperation agreements with universities would be sought to help train technicians and farmers. The universities would also share knowledge in the fields of food security, seed and fertilizers, water management and irrigation.

In the manufacturing sector, Italian businessmen were looking to establish plants that would also create local jobs.

"We already have plants here and would like to create more joint ventures so that we can invest in other sub-Saharan Africa countries to create manufacturing clusters that are related in a value chain and can work together and boost production," he said.

Nomatemba Tambo, South Africa's Ambassador to Italy, said the summit being held in South Africa was significant and would contribute to economic growth in both countries. Vincenzo Schioppa, the Italy's Ambassador to South Africa, said the aim of the fact-finding mission was to boost investment in the country and the region.