The month-long campaign sees the company‘s sector and regional specialists visiting a number of companies in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Denmark.

Business development executive manager Khwezi Tiya says the industries they will be targeting include food processing and packaging, chemicals, renewable energy and business process outsourcing (BPO).

“The choice of countries, sectors and companies we approach is based on solid market research and through networks we have built up with different embassies and companies.”

Although the CDC specialises in a number of sectors, its approach takes account of the fact that not all of these are currently in an expansion mode.

Germany is the anchor country during this leg of the CDC‘s investment strategy – but CDC will not be focusing on the automotive sector.

“We‘re focusing our full attention on the other industrial projects being investigated, which account for an overwhelming portion of the country‘s exports,” Tiya said.

In the Netherlands the CDC has identified opportunities in the BPO sector, while niche opportunities and technologies (steel and biotechnical) exist in Russia.

“Although there is a global economic downturn, we constantly have to network with companies, looking at future growth opportunities.”