At a 2-day meeting held this week in Santiago, Chilean and South African experts made progress in the development of a joint study that seeks to identify areas of work aimed at strengthening economic and trade ties between the two countries.
To the same end, a work plan for 2016 was established, which addresses areas such as customs procedures, technical barriers to trade, matters relating to agriculture, export and investment promotion, mining and agriculture, among others.
"Since last year, after the visit of President Bachelet to South Africa, we have strengthened our ties with this country through bilateral government meetings, seminars, trade missions, and participation in trade fairs. We have also agreed to conduct this study, whose findings will give us guidelines to continue our approaches," said Pablo Urria, Director of Bilateral Economic Affairs of DIRECON.
In fact, under the 'Africa Plan', implemented by DIRECON-ProChile, it is contemplated that in 2016, an office in South Africa will be opened in order to stimulate exports and investments.
Chile-South Africa trade
In 2014, trade between Chile and South Africa, a market of 53 million people, has been gradually increasing its purchasing power with the growth of the middle class, totaling US $ 209 million; with US $ 133 million in Chilean mining exports. Chilean imports from South Africa amounted to US $ 76 million, with a balance of trade surplus of US $ 63 million.
Trade between Chile and South Africa has grown at a rate of 8.8% annually over the past six years, while in the same period Chile's exports grew at an annual rate of 15.4%.