South Africa needs to retain its exporters to build the economy, however, currently, many challenges exist, including policy uncertainty and obstacles in the operating environment, panelists at a Team Export South Africa (Tesa) workshop said on Tuesday.
Independent international trade and development consultant Dr André Gouws noted that exporters “quit the industry” owing to a shortage of working capital, lack of market access and competition issues.
He mentioned that, even with organisations such as Tesa, which aims to be the main export promotion and development grouping in the country, the industry was too fragmented and agencies were not willing to work together. “We need one overall agency to lead exports in the country. There are too many role-players doing the same thing,” Gouws noted.
He called on provincial governments, particularly those in and around the export hubs, to get to know the exporters, feed the information back to Tesa and collaborate on interventions to keep them from exiting the industry.
Gouws further pointed out that the export market does not enjoy the same status in South Africa as it does in other countries, and the budget from the Department of Trade and Industry to support exporters was “pathetically small”.
Black Business Council CEO Mohale Ralebitso, who was also on the panel, added that intraregional trade also needed government-level intervention, as moving goods and capital between countries on the continent was near impossible.
Ralebitso added that manufacturing and exports needed to have an incremental effect on the economy. “We need a whole new South African economy . . . to reduce our unemployment numbers. This speaks to the necessity for us to be disruptive in our approach to the exports industry,” he concluded.