Chris Van Gass
5 May 2008
Cape Town — Farms in Western Cape could be among the first targets of Saudi Arabian businessmen seeking investment opportunities in the province, Premier Ebrahim Rasool said last week.
Rasool said a delegation of government officials and businessmen to the Middle East had been asked specifically what farms were for sale in the region. Cobus Dowry, Western Cape agriculture MEC, had presented a list of 14 such farms, one with a reserve price of R60m.
Rasool said the potential investors' aim was that if they were to buy farms they would be able to grow food, partly solving SA's problems and the Saudis' food problems.
The visit by the delegation led by Rasool to Saudi Arabia found agriculture and tourism would be the two sectors that would benefit most from future co-operation.
Other sectors that stood to gain were boat-building, jewellery and construction. Rasool said businessmen in these sectors were already making agreements with Saudi counterparts and provincial trade promotion agency Wesgro would monitor these transactions. A further indication of the success of the visit was that a "combination" of South African businessmen was discussing setting up a shared office in Jeddah.
Also, Rasool said, South African companies had been "surprised" by opportunities to partner Saudi Arabian companies in the roll-out of a R1,3-trillion infrastructure development programme in the next 15 years as the kingdom prepared for its post-oil economy.
These developments would focus on tourism infrastructure, roads, rail, airports and building of "economic cities". Rasool said a clear message was that Saudi Arabia needed expertise, including from SA, to complete these projects.
He said to promote tourism in Saudi Arabia a group of tour operators from the kingdom would be brought to Western Cape to sample its tourism products. The province would also respond to a Saudi request for South African assistance in an exchange of expertise in tourism, the management of nature and heritage areas, as well as leisure developments.
He said there was "great interest" in promoting agricultural exports, especially deciduous and citrus fruits and juice concentrates. There would be an exchange of technical and academic expertise from the Western Cape to Saudi Arabia.
Rasool said it was "probable" the Saudi team would qualify for the 2010 World Cup and was already looking at setting up a base camp in the province months ahead of the event, with tour operators exploring packages for Saudi soccer fans.
A number of offers had been received from the Middle East to sponsor South African students to study in scarce skills like engineering, urban design and architecture, and in the petrochemical industry.
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