Delivering her budget speech in Parliament on Wednesday (29 May)‚ Joemat-Pettersson said that while SA's membership of the Brazil‚ Russia‚ India‚ China and SA (BRICS) informal trade alliance had helped open new markets in Asia‚ there were still problems in accessing them.
"We are proud of our successes in opening new markets for the sector. Firstly‚ our membership of BRICS enabled our participation in the Ministers of Agriculture and Agrarian Development Mechanism where we immediately introduced trade as an area of co-operation among members‚" she said.
Asia's changing consumption patterns‚ population growth‚ structural reforms and improved market access have contributed to an increase in exports from South Africa to the Asian countries.
China is one of the largest export destinations for South Africa's agriculture‚ forestry and fisheries products‚ followed by Indonesia‚ Japan and India.
Joemat-Pettersson said her Department has recently opened offices in India and Russia and will open another in Brazil during the current financial year.
The budget for Joemat-Pettersson's department this year is almost R6.2bn with R663.9m allocated for administration; agriculture gets R4.5bn and forestry R525.5m. The fisheries sector has been allocated R434m.
Joemat-Pettersson said the National Development Plan‚ the New Growth Path‚ the Industrial Policy Action Plan and the work of the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Commission were all helping to guide her department's projects and programmes.
For more than two decades, I-Net Bridge has been one of South Africa’s preferred electronic providers of innovative solutions, data of the highest calibre, reliable platforms and excellent supporting systems. Our products include workstations, web applications and data feeds packaged with in-depth news and powerful analytical tools empowering clients to make meaningful decisions.
We pride ourselves on our wide variety of in-house skills, encompassing multiple platforms and applications. These skills enable us to not only function as a first class facility, but also design, implement and support all our client needs at a level that confirms I-Net Bridge a leader in its field.
Go to: http://www.inet.co.za
