A market of more than 102 million people and a $362 billion economy is the prize, and Pretoria wants its companies positioned to capture a share of it. The Joint South Africa-Egypt Business Council (JBC), launched on Friday on the margins of the Alamein Africa Business Forum, is the vehicle designed to open that door.
The numbers explain the interest. The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) described Egypt as South Africa’s strategic partner and largest export market in North Africa, and the trade data backs the framing. According to Statistics South Africa, direct bilateral trade rose 26% from R3.4 billion in 2024 to R4.3 billion in 2025, while South African exports to Egypt grew 21% from R1.3 billion to R1.6 billion over the same period. One caveat sits in the ledger: on direct data, South Africa ran a trade deficit with Egypt from 2021 to 2025, a detail the department acknowledged even as it cast the overall trend as positive. The result of these flows is that South Africa ranked as Egypt’s 46th export destination and 58th source of imports in 2025.
For the department, scale is the headline attraction. “It has by far the largest population in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, over 102 million, a GDP of $362 billion, and is one of Africa’s most diversified, large, and dynamic economies. There are solid opportunities for South African companies in the medium-to-long term and a platform for commercial activities in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa,” the dtic said in a statement.
The JBC’s work programme is built around sector-specific partnerships where capital and industrial capacity can be paired. These include a Mining and Minerals Partnership, an Automotive and New-Energy Mobility Partnership, an Agriculture and Agro-processing Corridor, an Engineering and Infrastructure Partnership, and a Renewable Energy and Green Industrial Platform. Perhaps the most significant for investors is the Africa Joint-Venture Investment Fund, a private-sector vehicle targeting companies and projects capable of expanding beyond the two domestic markets.
Meanwhile, the council’s launch was witnessed by participants at the Africa Automotive Investment Forum, held on the margins of the inaugural Alamein Africa Forum under the theme “Unlocking Africa’s Automotive Industry Potential under the AfCFTA.” dtic Minister Parks Tau took part in the Forum, which was hosted by Egypt’s Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, Dr Mohamed Farid Saleh, in collaboration with Afreximbank and the African Association of Automotive Manufacturers (AAAM).
That gathering assembled the full cast of an investment ecosystem: policymakers, governments, original equipment manufacturers, component manufacturers, suppliers, investors, financiers, logistics providers and development partners. Its stated aims were to identify bankable investment opportunities, strengthen regional automotive production capabilities and advance integrated continental supply chains.
For South Africa, the department said, the Forum offered a chance to position the country as a key manufacturing and investment anchor within an emerging continental automotive value chain, while strengthening linkages between South African automotive producers, African markets, component manufacturers, logistics networks and sources of capital.
The broader payoff, according to the dtic, lies in deepening bilateral trade and investment through practical commercial partnerships between South African and Egyptian companies, with both countries serving as gateways into Southern, North and wider African markets. Further details of the launch are available at http://www.buanews.gov.za/south-africa/sa-launches-joint-business-council-egypt. Whether the Africa Joint-Venture Investment Fund can convert that gateway ambition into bankable deals will be the test investors watch next.