PricewaterhouseCoopers is the largest professional services firm in Africa.

PricewaterhouseCoopers is the largest professional services firm in Africa. With over 5,800 employees in Africa alone, the firm is positioned as a leader in tax and advisory services, industry-focused assurance, and financial services across the continent.

During the first quarter of 2008, PricewaterhouseCoopers South Africa will assist in the launch of a new China/Africa Desk within its Beijing office. The new development will give existing and prospective clients a first point-of-entry when looking to make investments, facilitate mergers or acquisitions, form joint partnerships, or take advantage of the firm’s seamless and coordinated cross-border services.

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Southern African operations are headquartered in Johannesburg, where Deputy CEO, Stanley Subramoney, is overseeing the launch of the China/Africa Desk. “South Africa needs to have a China strategy,” Subramoney says. “This desk is going to play a central role on our part.”

“Finding the right partners, engaging with those who have local knowledge, and forging long-term relationships are keys to success whether you are talking about Chinese investments into Africa or African investment into China. These are the reasons why we have decided to launch this new desk, and in the end we will be able to offer better services to our clients.”

In South Africa, PricewaterhouseCoopers works with the government at all levels – municipal, provincial and national. The firm’s expertise spans a wide market within the private sector and its client list includes the top national and multi-national companies.

Subramoney believes a key function of the China/Africa desk will be to expand PricewaterhouseCoopers’ programme of cross-border engagement and transfer of personnel. The firm has established an immigration service to assist visitors with licences and visas. To combat the pessimism toward Africa and its markets, PricewaterhouseCoopers encourages would-be investors to pay a visit to South Africa to witness the country’s development and get a first-hand sense of its complex business climate.

This ‘one-stop shop’ approach is expected to serve PricewaterhouseCoopers well into the future, given the long-term opportunities Chinas sees in South Africa, in the areas of mining, power, telecommunications, infrastructure development and information technology. And due to a fairly open dialogue and strong historical ties at the political level between both countries, the stage is well set for parties on both sides to benefit.

In order for these mutual opportunities to be fully realised, Subramoney believes a new hope and vision needs to be brought to Africa - that meets the challenges imposed by shortages in skills, poverty, unemployment and marginalisation of large segments of its population.

For his part, and through the support of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Subramoney chairs a position at the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Business Foundation, which is an integrated vision and strategic framework designed to address the current challenges across the continent. NEPAD was born in 2001 when the African Union (AU) formally adopted the framework prepared by the leaders of five initiating states including Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.

Subramoney represents the private business sector in NEPAD and promotes an initiative called Vision 2015 that aims to foster smart partnerships and boost intra-African trade though the promotion of good governance, economic development, and peace and security across the continent. A central focus of NEPAD is to reduce the risk profile of doing business in Africa and create conditions conducive to investment.

“The 21^st century belongs to Africa,” says Subramoney. “China is going to play a key role in its development in terms of bringing new technology to the continent and assisting with badly needed infrastructure. However, it is up to Africa to seize the opportunity appropriately, and for the right reasons, so that all of its people share in its benefits.”