SA working on stronger ties with Russia

The field session of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum 2024 (Spief 2024), kicking off in Johannesburg today, will explore business cooperation and opportunities between South Africa and Russia.

The event in Sandton aims to expand the knowledge of South African partners about the possibilities of building strategic cooperation with Russian companies at the Spief site.

The 27th Spief will be held from 5 to 8 June – the first time in South Africa – and is a sequel to the second Russia-Africa Summit and Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum held late last year.

“We see mutual interest and understand that to continue a meaningful dialogue, we need to employ new formats – a field session is one of them,” said Alexey Valkov, deputy CEO of the Roscongress Foundation and director of Spief. “This enables us to engage in face-to-face discussions about the advantages of the Spief platform.”

Previous forums peaked the interest of companies in various sectors in recent years, including agribusiness, metalworking, retail, as well as non-governmental educational and consular institutions.

In parallel, Russia and South Africa actively cooperate within the Brics framework and regularly interact at the international level, which opened up many opportunities for businesses of both countries.

According to the Brics Business Council’s Elias Monage, South Africa and Russia had always aspired to develop trade.

“Russia is not only a key partner of South Africa, but also plays an important role in supplying technology for the development of its economy.

“We actively cooperate in areas such as energy, agriculture, mining and processing of minerals, and intellectual property,” Monage said.

The long-standing strategic partnership between South Africa and Russia provides a solid foundation for further strengthening the alliance.

“The participation of leading South African companies and representatives in the forum not only facilitates the establishment of business ties, but also contributes to the development of our mutual understanding and mutually beneficial cooperation,” Monage said.

Speakers tonight include Monage and Valkov; Business for South Africa’s Stavros Nicolaou; Oleg Savikov, Russia’s deputy trade representative to South Africa; and NJ Ayuk, executive chair of the African Energy Chamber.