Pretoria - Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has welcomed Japan’s commitment to support South Africa’s developmental trajectory. Deputy President Ramaphosa was speaking in Tokyo at the conclusion of his official visit to Japan on Tuesday 25 August 2015 where he led a high-level government and business delegation to promote strategic political and economic relations between the two nations.
 
‘’We found the Japanese people very receptive. We had a meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan, we spent an extensive amount of time with him and he demonstrated that he is very supportive of our developmental trajectory. We spent time with the Deputy Prime Minister, he articulated the same’’ said Deputy President Ramaphosa.
 
‘’We see Japan as a friend, as a country that does not only invest, but a country that also supports development. They are making great strides in supporting the continent when it comes to skills development. They have invited or called for a number of young people around the continent to come and be trained here in Japan. We will be sending forty nine (49).
 
‘’Whist I was here I saw six of them who are being trained in master’s degrees in engineering, logistics, marine technology and a whole number of other high flying type of technologies.  When we met these young people we saw the future of our country, we saw young people who are acquiring great skills who are ready to come back to make a contribution to our country, ’’ continued Deputy President Ramaphosa.
 
‘’We also asked them to help us to extend the training of artisans that we should have as many artisans trained as possible. We told them that the welders who helped us in Medupi power station … and we said we don’t see any reason why we don’t have specialized welders ourselves.
 
‘’They are positively inclined to that, they are going to look at our proposal where we can send high level artisans who are willing to be trained to come and be trained in Japanese companies and go back home. Technical people, mechanics as well as artisans we believe that through this visit we will have been able to open opportunities for many of our young people who can come to be trained here in Japan”, said Deputy President Ramaphosa
 
‘’The South African government on these types of visits seeks to make sure that we grow the economy of our country, we enhance investment, we push the skills development button and get as many of our young people to come to be trained in the countries that we visit because it is important to draw skills, as many skills as we possibly can. So we want to flood some of these countries with young people who can come and learn and go back home”, continued the Deputy President.
 
‘’ We spent time with the business community here in Japan but also with our own business community. Our business people had come from home and we believe many of them started discussions and negations on possible deals that they could be doing. It is pleasing to see our business people making contact and moving to contract and we think a number of them were able to do so, explained Deputy President Ramaphosa
 
‘’We also used this opportunity to promote trade. There are many other areas that we want to start trading with the Japanese on. More agricultural products, they are also going to give us skills with agro processing so it’s been hugely successful and we are all very happy with the way that the visit went’’
 
‘’So the ocean economy is one of those we discussed with them. They are well vest in ship building, marine transport, fisheries, aquaculture so we raised all these with them and said we want them to assist us to get into this and also to come and invest in those areas.
 
‘’We said we want to industrialize our economy even further. We want to create black industrialists and we gave them a history why we have got to create and develop black industrialists. We said when they come to South Africa they should seek out partners that they can work with but at the same time we want to grow our own, who will play a critical role in the economy of our country. They responded very positively to that’’, concluded Deputy President Ramaphosa.
 
Enquiries: Ronnie Mamoepa at 082 990 4853

 
Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria