Ace plots Ronaldo visit

As Free State’s international profile continues to grow with yet another successful edition of the province’s Global Investors Trade Bridge

The Free State government is working to lure Portuguese and Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo to the province, in what would be a major public relations coup sure to thrust the province in the international limelight, and give a fillip to tourism.

Premier Ace Magashule said his government was looking to use its close ties with Madeira to entice the foremost of Real Madrid’s present generation of galacticos – Spanish for superstars and how the club’s celebrated stars are sometimes referred to in soccer circles — to visit the province.

Magashule said Madeira’s President Miguel Albuquerque has agreed to use his influence to get Ronaldo, as he is commonly known among fans, on the plane to Mangaung’s Bram Fischer International Airport.

“We agreed with the President of Madeira that we should bring famed soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo to the province before the end of 2018,” said Magashule, during his address to officially open the Free State Global Investors Trade Bridge held in Bloemfontein from Monday to Wednesday this week.

Magashule did not give further details regarding the plan to bring Ronaldo to the Free State, neither did he give any indication as to whether there has been preliminary contact already with the star to sound him out about visiting the province.
The island of Madeira is an autonomous region of Portugal located in the Atlantic Ocean, about 900km southwest of the Portuguese capital, Lisbon.

The island, which is run by a regional government headed by Albuquerque, enjoys close relations with the Free State, cemented when Albuquerque came to the province last year on a two-day visit to strengthen trade and developmental ties.

No doubt Magashule and his government are hoping Albuquerque will use his influential position and contacts within the Portuguese establishment to pull the strings that can draw Ronaldo to the Free State — a development that will not only help advertise the province but South Africa as well.

Meanwhile the premier described the Trade Bridge as a platform to grow ties with investors and draw the kind of investment into the Free State that will help lift the economy of the province and along with it the living standards of its people.

Thirteen countries mostly from the Brics bloc and Sadc region took part in this year’s event, which was a quantum leap from last year when only three countries attended.

Magashule said the Free State enjoys firm relations with all the countries which graced the Trade Bridge and that most of them had students from the province studying at their universities.

In addition to accepting students from the Free State some of the countries had agreed to send experts to the province to teach and train people in different technical fields.

He mentioned, for example, Belarus, where the province has 44 students, and which has agreed to send agro-processing specialists to assist and share knowledge and skills with local farmers in order to maximise output.

Brazil, where the province has 17 students studying informatics, seven studying agro processing and nine doing their masters in these fields, is good at athletics and their specialists will also jet in to assist young athletes and help hone their talent.

“Our bilateral relations have also seen us send 183 students to Russia for the first time this year and we have three students studying petro-engineering in Nigeria,” Magashule said.

Addressing the same event, the Executive Mayor of Mangaung Metro, Olly Mlamleli, pointed out that the success of South Africa and the continent cannot be separated from economic freedom.

Mlamleli said it cannot be right that Africa remains the poorest continent in the world while at the same time it continues to attract international investors – calling on the benefits of investment to be more equitably shared with ordinary people.

She said: “The benefits of any investment that comes in must trickle down to the ordinary populace and help in creating sustainable jobs. Why does Africa remain poor, while it remains attractive to global investors, we need to ensure that the benefits of investments go to Africans.

“The Trade Bridge comes at a time when government is planning to formulate strategies that will assist in achieving the outcomes of the National Development Plan. It will help stimulate growth and the SMME sector.”

Echoing Mlamleli, former MEC of Destea, Sam Mashinini, who is now the provincial MEC of police, roads and transport following Monday’s reshuffle of the provincial cabinet, said the provincial government conceptualised the Trade Bridge to attract investors from out of the province, out of the country and out of the continent.
In doing so, he said, the Free State was taking itself forward, the country as well as the continent.

He spoke against an economy overly reliant on imports and said there was need for greater effort to grow the export sector, which has always been a key job creator in economies around the world.
Urging world investors to make the Free State one of their favourite destinations, Mashinini said: “The Trade Bridge is a call to Free State business to say to the world there is no better place to invest than here. It is a business platform to share ideas and enter into contracts.”