EU-South Africa Matchmaking Event 2023

Description

The European Commission (EC) organised the EU – South Africa Matchmaking Event in the context of Manufacturing Indaba which was held on 24 October – 26 October 2023.

The EU – South Africa Matchmaking Event itself took place on-site in Johannesburg, South Africa on 24 October – 26 October 2023.

The European Commission and The Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) of South Africa jointly organised the event with the support of the EU Delegation to South Africa and facilitated by the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP) and the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN).

The EU – South Africa Matchmaking Event brought together cluster organisations, SMEs, Start-ups and European Industry Associations from the European Union (EU), non-EU COSME countries, and South Africa. It provided participants an excellent chance to promote Cluster to Cluster (C2C), Cluster to Business (C2B), and Business to Business (B2B) collaborations. The overall objective of the event was to promote the exchange of information and provide networking opportunities for European cluster organisations and their members with counterparts from South Africa, particularly in the fields of Agri-food, Green Industries, Chemicals and Metals, Tourism, Transport (Maritime and Automotive), Digital Tech, Textile and Leather.

📕Download the Agenda and the Participants' booklet. 📰 Read a full run-down of the event with the summary article!

Welcoming address from Jakub Boratynski, DG GROW

Read for more information⬇️

Agenda and Activities

Preparatory Webinar – an opportunity to receive information on undertaking business in South Africa and guidance on how to participate successfully in the planned event. Date: 26 September 2023, 9:30 – 11:00 CET. Agenda to be found here.
Technical Webinar – a session helping future participants of the matchmaking event to make the most of their profiling in the B2Match tool and explain the procedures to optimise the booking of meetings. Date: 10 October 2023, 9:30-10:30 CET.
Matchmaking meetings between Cluster Organisations, SMEs, Start-ups and European Industry Associations from EU (and non-EU COSME) countries and South Africa. 24 October 2023
Site visits
Debriefing session to collect feedback and testimonials from cluster participants.
Participation at the Manufacturing Indaba
Post-event survey

Focus areas

Agri-food
Green industries
Chemicals and metals
Tourism
Transport (Maritime and automotive)
Digital tech
Textile and leather

Objectives

The objectives for the participants included:

Strengthening EU-South Africa cluster cooperation for the benefit of their members, including a seminar, a cluster matchmaking event, and site visits.
Identifying potential areas of common interest for cooperation and synergies, in terms of the sectoral, value chain, and market focus of their SMEs and other companies.
Improving, through clusters, the EU-South Africa industry and academia-industry collaboration in research, development, and innovation. For its members, the clusters identified possible areas of RDI collaboration (academia, research organisations, industries...).

Format

The EU – South Africa Matchmaking Event took place on-site in Johannesburg, South Africa. Participants were able to schedule meetings through the B2Match Platform.

Event Activities

Participation in Manufacturing Indaba 2023.
Matchmaking sessions between cluster organisations and SMEs from EU (and COSME) countries and South Africa
Local visits
Debriefing session to collect feedback from cluster participants

+ more to be announced soon!

Participants

This invitation was addressed to cluster, business network organisations, SMEs, Start-ups and European Industry Associations interested in collaborating with South African counterparts in the following sectors:

Agri-food
Green industries
Chemicals and metals
Tourism
Transport (Maritime and automotive)
Digital tech
Textile and leather

Call for Expression of Interest

Calls for Expression of Interest targeting cluster organisations, SMEs, Start-Ups and European Industry Associations from the EU and non-EU COSME countries who wish to participate are now closed.

Videos

EU-South Africa Matchmaking Event 2023: Watch the highlights video🎬

Preparatory Webinar

A preparatory Webinar for The EU – South Africa Matchmaking Event was held on 26 September 2023. The Agenda for the Webinar is available here.

Below are all the presentations used in the frame of the Webinar:

Market access information session – collaboration opportunities and guidelines on how to do business with South Africa
Regional approach, presentation of Input paper

Lennart Galdiga, Expert ‘Data & Policy‘, ECCP - download presentation
Darryn Allan, Policy Officer, Trade and Economic Section, Delegation of the European Union to South Africa - download presentation
Papama Mnyamana, Investment Facilitation Manager, Gauteng Growth and Development Agency, Gauteng Provincial Government, Republic of South Africa - download presentation