Star-struck partners reach for the heavens

An entrepreneur says south African high-tech companies can play a vital role in china's space program

Ivor Ichikowitz hopes he can take China's booming space program, and mankind, one step closer to another planet.

The CEO and founder of Paramount Group, South Africa's largest privately-owned aerospace and defense company, says China's growing space program could provide ample opportunities for South African high-tech companies.

If all goes well for the technology magnate, the growing country's technological innovations could one day help put Chinese astronauts on Mars.

"They are putting a huge amount of money into the aerospace environment and we have made it clear we're ready to share our knowledge," Ichikowitz says.

Though Paramount is best known for more earthly creations - the company's Marauder vehicle reached celebrity status when it was featured on the popular TV show Top Gear - it is the huge efforts being put into China's space program that has many tech companies bursting with enthusiasm.

"There are some very exciting projects that are going on in China right now," he says.

While China's Mars missions may be more than a decade away, the 47-year-old South African believes now is the time for China to establish partnerships with African countries to promote high-tech exchanges and create industrial projects.

Piloting efforts by South Africa's high-tech industry to forge business links with China's successful aerospace and defense industries, Paramount is now in talks with large Chinese companies, Ichikowitz says.

His vision is to move beyond basic trade relationships and establish partnerships fueled by the developing status of both countries.

"We are in discussions with Chinese counterparts to basically build on the goodwill created through the BRICS relationship between South Africa and China," he says.

The increased presence of Chinese businesses in Africa has pushed business leaders like Ichikowitz to push for closer ties with China.

"China was not as evident on our radar screen in years gone by, but it's very much a focus for us now. We want to move our relationship beyond just a purchasing relationship to a partnership. "We actually want to create a China-South Africa strategic alliance in the high-tech fields of defense and aerospace."

The need to diversify China's investment in Africa has long been recognized by Chinese businesses, and efforts to do so are already underway.

In June, the China-Africa Business Council and China-Africa Development Fund, which represent more than 550 Chinese businesses in Africa, set up two funds worth $2 billion to encourage foreign investment in new areas in Africa.

Though the efforts to broaden investment are a good start, Ichikowitz says, Chinese companies in Africa should push to create added-value manufacturing jobs, in turn addressing what he says is Africa's largest problem - poverty.

"The future of Africa depends on Africa's ability to become an industrial economy. Every country in Africa is fighting one major problem and that is the problem of poverty."

Ichikowitz believes that by generating demand for manufacturing jobs, China can help create a more secure Africa with stronger trade partnerships.

"Without industrializing, without adding value to goods in Africa, the problem of poverty will never be solved. And if you don't solve that problem you will always have problems with security.

"Either China can acknowledge and embrace this reality and help to develop industries in Africa that produce products that can be sold in China and to the rest of the world, or they may see their dominance in Africa eclipsed by other partners."

While for many the idea of defense conjures up images of war, Ichikowitz views himself as a peacekeeper and someone passionate about an Africa he wants to see thrive.

It was that passion that led him to found Paramount in the 1990s after witnessing the ravaging effects of genocide on Rwanda.

After a conversation in 1994 with then Rwandan vice-president Paul Kagame about how to prevent such atrocities, Ichikowitz was inspired to return to South Africa to piece together equipment and licensing to start Paramount.

Inspired by the idea that he could help provide the tools necessary to help nations avoid conflict, he gathered unused pieces of military equipment and funding from banks to slowly develop Paramount.

In the decade and a half since its inception, Paramount has become South Africa's largest private aerospace and defense company, responsible for designing the country's first light high-performance aircraft and playing a pivotal role in helping to maintain the nation's air force.

Beyond aerospace and defense, Ichikowitz also serves as the executive chairman of private equity group TransAfrica Capital (Pty) Limited, which funds businesses from retail to hospitality and scientific research to improve South African industry and commerce.

When he is not negotiating multimillion-dollar deals, the sharp entrepreneur shows his soft side, maintaining his compassion for Africa through his family's non-profit Umoja Foundation.

"I am a very proud and passionate African," he says. "I was privileged to have been brought up during a time of great optimism about Africa."

Closely linked to the continent, he says he has spent much of his adult life visiting all of Africa's countries. He says the future of the continent relies on the people of Africa understanding and valuing the continent's unique landscape.

When it comes to China's involvement in that future, Ichikowitz believes the two are well-suited trade partners.

"It's a natural partnership: Africa's strengths are China's weaknesses, and China's weaknesses are Africa's strengths."

"Start at the basic level. China has a very well-established industrial mentality. China more than anywhere in the world understands how to alleviate poverty through creating jobs through industrialization.

"This is something Africa needs to do desperately but can't do because it doesn't have the skills, the experience or the capital.

"Africa has the raw materials that China needs for its industry, but those raw materials can benefit (from going through) a second or third stage in Africa before they are supplied to Chinese industries. There are many examples of how value can be shared."

toddbalazovic@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 08/16/2013 page21)