Effective media and public relations work is the key to successful investment activities. The Office of the SAFRI Chairman was set up at the Daimler headquarters in Stuttgart to develop, concentrate and coordinate a wide range of activities. SAFRI informs the public of its objectives and activities in regularly updated brochures as well as online (www.safri.de).

The Afrika-Verein publishes a fortnightly newsletter Afrika-Brief and the bi-monthly Afrika- Wirtschaft. At the European level the association is the driving force behind the European Business Council for Africa and the Mediterranean network (EBCAM). The Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) is a member of EUROCHAMBRES, an EU-wide network of 46 national and 2,000 regional and local chambers of commerce, offering a wide range of information and services. The German chamber network pools its- considerable data in the IHK Knowledge Management platform and makes it accessible to members in a daily journal.

In his speeches, interviews and essays, the SAFRI Chairman Professor Jürgen E. Schrempp supports the call for an improved perception of Southern Africa in Germany and a more differentiated image of Africa as a whole.

Media coverage is also extended by newspaper reports initiated by the SAFRI office on current affairs issues such as the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa or Africa and the G8. SAFRI also makes its expertise and contacts available for the purposes of television documentaries, e.g. Mosambik - Aufbruch in Afrika (3sat; 2007).

Knowledge transfer

With the aim of deepening Africa’s inclusion in the global exchange of knowledge SAFRI supports the inter-university organisation. The organisation’s key outpost in Southern Africa is the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Studies and publications: Case study – Tourism

Studies are an important basis for business decision-making. The results of a SAFRI-initiated study encouraged the governments in Southern Africa to make tourism a priority on their development agenda. Tourism encompasses not only the core sectors of transport, accommodation, leisure and entertainment, but also has a positive impact on many other branches of industry – including printing and publishing, banks and financial services, as well as the media, construction and foodstuffs industries.

Tourism is the single most important catalyst for development in a wide variety of industries. More than any other sector, tourism is capable of creating jobs, stimulating entrepreneurial activity in the formal and informal sectors and achieving a very high level of real net output among the local population.

In particular, SAFRI has turned the spotlight on Southern Africa’s regional development corridors and the Transfrontier Conservation Areas with their high potential for tourism. For example, SAFRI supports the aims of the Peace Parks Foundation (PPF), conducted awareness events on this topic in various cities and published the booklet Transfrontier Peace Parks in Southern Africa – Unspoiled Ecosystems • Magnets for tourism • Creating Employment.