The Department of International Relations and Cooperation Deputy Minister, Candith Mashego-Dlamini, and her Qatar counterpart, Dr Ahmed Hassen Al-Hammadi, met yesterday with the aim of strengthening bilateral political and economic relations.
Potential areas of cooperation that have been identified include tourism, trade, infrastructure, transport and renewable energy.
Regional and multilateral areas of common interest were also in focus.
The department said the talks had taken place in the greater context of preparing for the South Africa-Qatar bilateral consultations which are scheduled to be held at ministerial level in 2022.
Government believes that a peninsular Arab country is a key partner in terms of advancing its Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan of South Africa (ERRP).
The country is South Africa’s 10th-largest trading partner in the Middle East in terms of exports and the fifth largest in terms of imports.
Last year, Qatar Petroleum announced a second gas discovery in South Africa’s Luiperd prospect, located adjacent to the Brulpadda prospect, which was identified in February 2019 as an important gas-condensate discovery.
“Various development options are currently being evaluated to commercialise these findings. These positive developments will help bolster South Africa’s energy mix and develop adequate generation capacity to meet electricity demand, under both the current low-growth economic environment as well as when the economy improves, to aid long-term energy security for the country,” Dirco said. – SAnews.gov.za