Drugs company sings Hollande’s praises
SA and France seal investment relationship with R51bn Alstom contract, writes Mark Allix
FRENCH President François Hollande was given an effusive welcome by a praise singer on his visit to French drug maker Sanofi’s manufacturing plant in Pretoria yesterday.
A choir sang his name and that of the global pharmaceutical company that makes 90% of SA’s tuberculosis (TB) drugs and 20% of its antiretroviral medicines.
These pills will each cost 7 US cents and 30c a day, respectively, as per a state tender over the next two years, providing about a million sufferers with “quality products at affordable prices”.
But as France’s number one citizen was given an extensive tour of one of Africa’s most advanced drug manufacturers, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies were conspicuous by their absence. Sanofi and French embassy officials said they were “otherwise engaged”, leaving the French president to be accompanied by Justice Minister Jeff Radebe.
Department of Trade and Industry spokesman Sidwell Medupe said Mr Davies was speaking at a function in Durban for the destruction of substandard manufactured products sold in SA.
Sanofi SA GM John Fagan said he was sure that what “touched” Mr Hollande on his visit to the company’s Waltloo facility in Gauteng was the “humanitarian burden” that could be alleviated by the drugs Sanofi makes. He said Sanofi “matched the disease burden” of the 40 countries it operates in, many in emerging markets.
Apart from TB and HIV/AIDS drugs, and combinations thereof, the factory made antibiotics, vitamins and cancer medication.
“We are the only research and development-based multinational that has a manufacturing plant in SA,” Mr Fagan said.
France and SA sought to cement their trade and investment relationship and ties with 300 French companies doing business in SA during Mr Hollande’s first state visit.
These included French global engineering group Alstom, which on Monday officially signed a R51bn contract to supply the Passenger Rail Agency of SA with 600 passenger trains between 2015 and 2025, including 3,600 coaches. This is the largest single deal in Alstom’s history.
French firms are significantly involved in major infrastructure projects in SA, including Eskom’s two new coal-fired, megapower stations, Medupi and Kusile.
In his address to the SA-France Business Forum on Monday, President Jacob Zuma said France was the country’s third-largest investment and trading partner in the European Union (EU). “Today marks yet another important milestone in the bilateral relations between SA and France,” he said. “Co-operation between the two countries cuts across a broad spectrum of areas including … defence, development co-operation, science and technology, arts and culture, energy and agriculture.”
Mr Hollande told the forum that as a member of the Group of 20 nations SA helped to “regulate the global economy”.
France’s Socialist president also said that he and Mr Zuma wanted to stabilise the prices of global commodities and regulate the world’s tax havens.
“France considers SA a major player, not only in Africa, but beyond it,” Mr Hollande said.
He said France wanted to participate in SA’s R4-trillion infrastructure rollout over the next 15 years, and backed the country’s broad-based black economic empowerment legislation.
This would provide “new and emerging customers” with access to consumer goods, and improve their quality of life, he said.
French aid to SA was “still relevant”, he added, despite heated debate in the European Union on whether a “middle-income country” such as SA should benefit from aid as well as trade.
France’s trade relationship with SA included strengthening skills development, professional training, higher education, and also research and development.
But Mr Hollande said the economic relationship between the two countries was “first of all” a relationship between South African and French companies.
Mr Zuma said between 2004 and 2012 French companies had invested R15bn in SA, creating significant job opportunities. But he also said that South African companies were seeking opportunities to increase their exports into the French market. Mr Davies had said earlier that this was heavily balanced in France’s favour.
Mr Zuma said he had briefed Mr Hollande on SA’s efforts to stimulate the economy through the National Development Plan. “It outlines what type of SA we want to be by the year 2030.”