PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to host Côte d’ Ivoire’s President Alassane Ouattara during his state visit to South Africa on Friday which will see the signing of bilateral agreements between the two countries.
This will be Ouattara’s reciprocal visit to South Africa following Ramaphosa’s successful State Visit to Côte d’Ivoire in December 2021.
Ramaphosa and Ouattara are expected to hold bilateral discussions, witness the signing of a number of agreements and address a South Africa – Côte d’Ivoire Business Forum.
South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire enjoy close political, economic, social and cultural ties.
According to the Presidency, bilateral relations between the two countries are managed through the Joint Commission of Cooperation (JCC), established in December 2015, as a structured bilateral mechanism to facilitate political, economic, social, cultural, scientific and technical cooperation between the two countries.
Since the establishment of the JCC nine (9) Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) and Agreements have been signed between the two countries in sectors such as Agriculture, Mining, Transport, Telecommunications and Defence.
During the State Visit the two countries aim to sign additional agreements to further strengthen bilateral relations.
The bilateral trade between South Africa and Côte d’Ivoire remains on an upward trajectory.
Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, total trade between the two countries increased from R1, 3 billion in 2019 to R2.0 billion in 2021. This represented an increase of about R774 millions of total trade between the two countries.
The portfolio of South Africa’s investments in Cote d’Ivoire is also increasing rapidly.
Among others, the following South African companies are invested in Côte d’Ivoire: MTN, Standard bank, Multichoice, Sanlam, Investec, RMB and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).
INSIDE POLITICS
