S. African banks sitting on excess cash: Envoy

Investment and Trade Conference in Harare yesterday.
But the Zimbabwean companies should present “bankable projects”, he said.
“The South African companies here should not take Zimbabwe as a flea market” he said. “Trade is good but we should be looking beyond that.
“They should look for possibilities for establishing joint venture partnerships with their Zimbabwean counterparts and, on that basis, they could engage South African banks for funding.”
As part of this fourth Zimbabwe-South Africa Investment and Trade initiative, a delegation of 40 South African companies is in Zimbabwe to examine  business opportunities.
Ambassador Mavimbela said the anticipated slow-down in the economic performance of most of the BRICS countries should provide impetus for regional integration and intra-regional trade flows.
“We have been running to the BRICS, but their economies are forecast to slow down,” said the SA envoy.  “However, one of the opportunities that this presents is that it pushes us together to strengthen integration. It forces us to look inwards.” (BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.)
Africa’s economic growth, in particular last year, was largely driven by a commodity exports boom emanating from demand from the emerging the BRICS economies.
But with the International Monetary Fund, in its recent World Economic Outlook Report, forecasting a dip in China’s economic performance to its lowest in more than a decade this year, countries such as Zimbabwe and South Africa could also be negatively affected.
This has necessitated boosting of intra-regional trade and investment.
Addressing delegates at the same event, SA’s Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Elizabeth Thabethe noted the incremental trade statistics between the two countries.
She said two-way trade between Zimbabwe and South Africa last year stood at R19,2 billion, up from R16,2 billion in 2010 and R14 billion in 2009.
Zimbabwe-SA trade is guided by the Bilateral Trade Agreement and the Southern Africa Development Community Trade Protocol.
But Ms Thabethe reiterated the need for joint-venture partnerships between companies from the two countries.
“We should encourage our companies to establish joint-venture partnerships,” she said.
Deputy Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Minister Samuel Undenge said increased co-operative partnerships would help in balancing out of trade between the two countries. Although, South Africa is Zimbabwe’s long-standing biggest trading partner, the trade has been in South Africa’s favour due to Zimbabwe’s poor economic performance.
“Zim-SA trade is still lopsided, but that is an issue that will be addressed when South African investments into Zimbabwe begin to increase,” he said.
Figures from the Zimbabwe Investment Authority show that 67 South African projects worth US$682 million have been approved during the first six months of the year.
But there has been criticism from some quarters at the level and type of external investment the country has attracted, even from economic powerhouses, in areas such as retail establishments and product franchising.
This is at a time when Zimbabwe is in critical need of investment in critical economic infrastructure in the energy, ICT, and transportation sectors.