Description
The European Commission (EC) will organise the EU – South Africa Matchmaking Event in the context of Manufacturing Indaba which will be held on 24 October – 26 October 2023.
The EU – South Africa Matchmaking Event itself will take place on-site in Johannesburg, South Africa on 24 October – 26 October 2023.
The event will be jointly organised by the European Commission and The Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) of South Africa - 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 will bring together cluster organisations, SMEs, Start-ups and European Industry Associations from the European Union (EU), non-EU COSME countries, and South Africa. It will provide 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 is 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.
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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 tbc)
- 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
The draft agenda can be found here. Please note, that the times shown, as well as the order of planned activities may be subject to change.
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 include:
- 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 will identify possible areas of RDI collaboration (academia, research organisations, industries...).
Format
The EU – South Africa Matchmaking Event will take place on-site in Johannesburg, South Africa. Participants will be able to schedule meetings through the B2Match Platform. More information on this is available at the Calls.
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!
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?
This invitation is 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
The event will support the funded participation of up to 20 representatives (from the selected clusters and business networks). More participants can be accepted upon confirmation and at their own cost. Late applications could be accepted for participation, provided that the eligibility criteria are fulfilled and that costs are borne by the participants.
SMEs, Start-ups and European Industry Association may participate at their own costs as part of the delegation and benefit from all planned activities if they fulfil the eligibility criteria.
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 open:
EU-South Africa Matchmaking Event 2023 - Call for Expression of Interest - Clusters - first cut-off date has been closed (2 August 2023). Applications are currently accepted under the second cut-off date - 7 September (Thursday) 2023, 23:59.
EU-South Africa Matchmaking Event 2023 - Call for Expression of Interest - SMEs, Start-Ups, European Industry Association - first cut-off date has been closed (2 August 2023). Applications are currently accepted under the second cut-off date - 7 September (Thursday) 2023, 23:59.
In case of available places, applications are accepted until 17 October 2023, 23:59 Brussels time at the latest.
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 AfricaRegional 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
Presentation of the Africa IP SME Helpdesk project: Supporting the internationalisation of SMEs to South Africa
- Andrea IORI, Africa IP SME Helpdesk Project Manager - download presentation
Presentation of Manufacturing Indaba, practical information, general overview and insights
- Liz Hart, Managing Director, Manufacturing Indaba - download presentation
Looking back to past missions
The European Commission organised the EU-South Med Matchmaking Event 2023 in the context of Euromed Clusters Forward’s Tech Days and during GITEX AFRICA. The EU-South Med Matchmaking Event itself took place on-site in Marrakech from 31 May - 2 June 2023.
For this edition, the delegation was composed of a range of clusters, SMEs, public institutions and R&D organisations, 17 of whom were from Europe and 34 from South Med countries, including members from Bulgaria, Egypt, France, Hungary, Jordan, Lebanon, Lithuania, Moldova, Morocco, Palestine, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain & Tunisia. Of the 51 participants, we facilitated 117 bilateral meetings, producing a range of fruitful outcomes, partnerships and opportunities. Have a look at the agenda from our event in Morocco here and read more about it here.