The Built Environment Professions Export Council (Bepec) has extended its membership platform to take in the construction services sector in an attempt to have a united South Africa Inc expand into the rest of Africa.
The council’s widened base opens all the Bepec export promotions and export-enhancing offerings of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Trade Investment Africa to companies working in the construction services sector and will allow the utilization of numerous opportunities outside South Africa’s borders.
“We have to commence working and finding our way through various opportunities in Africa as SA Inc. We have been walking into Africa [in] pockets,” Bepec chairperson Kribbs Moodley said at the launch of the new council in Pretoria.
This recently expanded export council will be taking the joint approach to aid the industry access a continent with a $93-billion infrastructure market.
“It is essential to build up and raise our businesses so they are not barred from the long-standing development of Africa moving forward,” he said.
With aspirations of capturing 1% of overall universal exports by value by 2030, it is increasingly vital for South Africa to organize joint trade and execute those what is embedded in South Africa’s economic strategy.
In line with this, it made “complete sense” to have the extended membership base, said Bepec CEO Con Korsten, pointing out that it made for more effective securing and execution of projects as SA Inc and smoothed the way to the formation of consortia of joint disciplines for such projects.
Bepec was founded in 2008, with first members hailing from Consulting Engineers South Africa, the Association of South African Quantity Surveyors and the South African Institute of Architects.
The newly refurbished council, which will be rebranded and renamed, will now take in associations such as Master Builders South Africa, the Black Business Council in the Built Environment and the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors, for which three new board positions will be formed within Bepec.
The Bepec move unlocked numerous benefits for the construction services sector, such as network opportunities, facilitating effortless access to trading and project opportunities, support while contracting in a foreign nation, a voice in government for the private sector and opportunities to take part in the numerous DTI missions to Africa.
