Building brand South Africa in China

BSA's main responsibility is to coordinate the marketing of the country to ensure that companies and businesspeople present a coherent and consistent brand image of what South Africa has to offer. BSA also operates domestically to work with South Africans to build civic pride and to ensure everyone contributes to the national effort.

"We now work largely through national stakeholders. For example, we work with the departments of trade and industry, international relations and cooperation, tourism, as well as art and culture. But we also work with business and civic societies and organizations.

"All we do is ensure we market South Africa in a coordinated fashion and send a coherent and consistent message from our country to attract investment, business, tourism and trade."

He uses tourism as an example. In the past, South Africa marketed its tourism only for single destinations that offered impressive scenery. BSA was involved in building a holistic image of South Africa as a destination for visitors, businessmen, skilled workers, technicians and investors.

"We are now more about creating a reputation and an image of the country, not so much about sector-specific marketing, which should be done by individual agencies," he says.

One of the reasons for establishing BSA was to change the previous narrative of the country. Before 1994 South Africa's story was all about apartheid and this discouraged business opportunities. But now, Matola says, the country has changed a great deal and people should come to experience it for themselves.

"It's very important to tell the world what has been achieved during the past 20 democratic years in this country, but also to tell the story of where the country is going, which is the national development plan and Vision 2030," he says.

"We need to promote South Africa as a democratic and stable country that has a national vision concentrating on inclusive growth and necessary development and to attract as much investment as we can."