A South African delegation visits the Lula Institute and formally expresses a desire to form closer institutional relations

A delegation from South Africa visited the Lula Institute on Tuesday,  (February 19) and met with Celso Marcondes, the Institute’s exective coordinator for the African Initiative. Tembiza Nguza, the first secretary of the South African Embassy in Brazil, expressed the desire of South Africa to continue to strengthen its relationship with Brazil. “To do this, the embassy has identified the Lula Institute as one of the key organizations with which we want closer contact. We want to be able to consult with the Lula Institute as an independent organization and in this capacity we want to invite them to participate in discussions and meetings at the embassy.”

Professor K. Payle, of the University of Limpopo, in South Africa pointed out at the meeting that Brazil and South Africa have various similarities. “Both have an important leading role on their respective continents, and both have achieved success in their efforts for economic growth but still face structural problems,” he said. He said that despite significant advances in recent years, commercial relations between the two countries are still very limited. During his administration, former President Lula visited South Africa four times. During this time, Brazil’s exports to South Africa almost tripled, from US$ 478.2 millions to US$ 1.3 billion. Brazil also began to purchase more from South Africa, increasing imports from US$182 million to US$753 million. The balance of trade, increased by 88% in Brazil’s favor, from US$296.5 million to US$556.7 million.

M. Dikgale, from the South African Department of Industry and Commerce was also at the meeting and along with his colleagues expressed the interest of South Africa with regard to the financing infrastructure projects and discussed the possibility of a development bank for the “Brics”.

The African Initiative is one of the areas of focus of the Lula Institute. During his administration, the former president shifted the focus of the priorities of Brazil’s foreign policy and worked to improve the relations between Brazil and African countries. He made 33 presidential visits to the continent and created 19 new embassies. After the foundation of the Lula Institute, the focus shifted to the international exchange of public policies for the development of the African continent.