THE JCCI-STANDARD BANK SME EXPORT INCUBATOR WILL SUPPORT GOVERNMENT’S OBJECTIVES - DAVIES

THE JCCI-STANDARD BANK SME EXPORT INCUBATOR WILL SUPPORT GOVERNMENT’S OBJECTIVES - DAVIES

The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies says the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) – Standard Bank Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Export Incubator will support two objectives of government which are incubation roll-out and export promotion. Minister Davies was speaking at the launch of the incubation centre in Johannesburg today.

According to Minister Davies, the challenges posed by the decline in the mineral commodity prices have had a major impact on South Africa as a producer of mineral commodities, and therefore South Africa wanted to diversify the economy and move up the value chain.

“This move will require small enterprises to know their business and what is required for them to be able to move up the value chain. We have engaged chambers of Commerce and Industry regarding building on their membership to take SMEs to higher levels,” said Minister Davies.

He highlighted that the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) was running an Export Development programme aimed at ensuring that businesses were ready to participate in international trade by being “export ready” to take their products to other markets.

“We want to give businesses a “passport” which will ensure that they are ready to export so when we take them on international missions, they are actually ready to export their products to those markets,” added Davies.

He said the JCCI-Standard Bank incubator programme was welcome, especially because it was an initiative that was supported by industry, and not relying on government funding. Davies urged other industry players to do the same in order to grow small enterprises.  

Speaking at the same event, the Ambassador of Germany in South Africa Mr Walter Lindner said the German government was happy to have co-founded the programme as it would contribute to the creation of jobs in the country.

“We are using this programme as a pilot, which when successful, could be replicated not only in other parts of South Africa but all over the world,” added Ambassador Lindner.

The three year incubation programme was co-funded by the JCCI, Standard Bank and the Giz to the tune of R6 million. The centre, which currently hosts 15 businesses with a capacity to house 40, will provide formal training on export matters, professional advice and expert mentoring to Gauteng based Black SMEs to enable them to become exporters of their product or service on an on-going basis.

Caption: President of JCCI, Advocate Fay Mukaddam, German Ambassador Mr Walter Lindner, Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies and Head of Small Enterprise in Standard Bank, Ms Ethel Nyembe officially open the JCCI-Standard Bank SME Export Incubator.