Ramaphosa heads to Ivory Coast on working visit
CAPE TOWN - President Cyril Ramaphosa will head to the Ivory Coast on Monday on a working visit. During his visit, he hopes to consolidate South Africa's position as one of the leading investment destinations on the continent.
Ramaphosa's visit is centred around the 12th edition of the Africa CEO Forum, which is taking place in the capital, Abidjan.
The Presidency said part of Ramaphosa's visit will also strengthen existing bilateral relations between the two countries. This follows his last visit to the Ivory Coast in 2021 and a reciprocal visit by President Alassane Ouattara the following year.
The Africa CEO Forum is the leading platform for heads of the continent's biggest multinational companies, investors and representatives of financial institutions.
The event serves as a platform for high-level business meetings where new innovations are showcased, and business ideas are exchanged.
This year's CEO forum seeks to promote closer cooperation between the private and public sectors in infrastructure and industrial development.
Several South African companies have invested in the Ivory Coast, including MTN, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Nedbank, Stanbic, Investec, Multichoice and Sanlam.
Ramaphosa said South Africa's G20 presidency will further enhance the country's visibility at the forum.
READ: Ramaphosa: SA to use G20 Presidency to encourage greater cooperation between world's leading economies
The Department of Trade, along with Brand SA, will host an investment session on the sidelines of the forum.
Ramaphosa will also be accompanied by the Ministers of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Gwede Mantashe and the Electricity and Energy Minister, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.
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These include a deconstruction of the false charge that Leon's father had been responsible for sentencing the ANC operative Solomon Mahlangu to death years ago. In particular, Leon's experiences as an ambassador in Argentina during the desperate days in that country's last (so far) Peronista regime are particularly interesting, as Leon positions them as a cautionary tale of what happens when a country augers towards the ground economically and politically. Of special interest to this reader (because of his own experiences) were Leon's non-specialist but trenchant observations on Japan after visiting there. Japan has surmounted its World War 2 experience (and managed to put much of the resulting horrors aside), even as it continues to embrace many ancient traditions together with its contemporary political and economic policies designed for the benefit of a majority of its citizens. 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