Spanish PM heading to South Africa to discuss poverty

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will lead a high-level delegation on an official visit to South Africa on Thursday for bilateral talks with President Cyril Ramaphosa and the South African government.

The South African presidency pointed out that the engagement between the two leaders is directed towards addressing the triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequality and to boost South Africa’s economic recovery and reconstruction efforts following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This will be the Spanish Prime Minister’s first visit to South Africa since he assumed office in 2018.

The talks will focus on deepening cooperation across multiple sectors, including trade and investment, science and innovation, arts and culture, sports and education.

South Africa and Spain have enjoyed warm relations and strong cooperation in various sectors over the years.

More than 150 Spanish companies have invested in South Africa creating over 20,000 jobs, largely in the following sectors: Infrastructure Development, Renewable Energy, Financial Services, Tourism, Textiles, IT & Software, Metals and Mining.

Bilateral trade between South Africa and Spain almost quadrupled in the past 10 years, according to Pretoria.

In 2021, Spain was South Africa’s 4th largest export destination in the EU and 5th largest source of imports from the EU. Trade between South Africa and Spain increased over the 2-year period 2020 and 2021.

Exports from South Africa to Spain increased consistently for the ten-year period.

For the last two years, exports increased from R14.9 billion in 2020 to R28.5 billion in 2021.