Chairman’s Report BISA 2024
2024 has been a truly momentus year for BISA. All aspects of the organisation have reached new levels and the organisation is now widely recognised as an important and integral part of the Irish South African Business environment.
Events
We had so many great events this year, across, Dublin, Cape Town and Johannesburg that it is difficult to do justice to the level of activities. There were certainly well in excess of 20 events ranging from political, to cultural, sporting and numerous international business events. We had extensive exposure to Irish and SA government ministers, particularly Minister Darragh O’Brien who we hosted in both Cape Town and Dublin. We met with South African deputy Minister Andrew Whitfield and indeed the Deputy President Paul Mashatile and we were actively involved in Trade missions in both countries. Also European, South African and Irish Business Chambers. These activities were attended by hundreds of members and they had a considerable impact on integrating and growing our membership substantially during the year.
Team Ireland
I’m very happy to report that we had numerous interactions and great cooperation with our fellow members of team Ireland in South Africa. Ambassador Austin Gormley and his team at the embassy, Enterprise Ireland and the IDA. We are delighted to celebrate the opening of the new EI offices in Cape Town. Additionally, we worked extensively with the South African Embassy in Ireland and Mabet Van Rensberg was a huge support in this regard. We were delighted to have the opportunity to welcome the new Ambassador, Nicolette Schreiber and have already had several events with her in Dublin.
European Union
Our relationship with our EU partners continues to grow and prosper and we shared several excellent events with them during the year. The Wesgro Trade summit in February kick started the year and we had 2 EU Golf Days and our EU representative Johnny Greene was very active in joint business and social events for all our collective members.
Membership
Our membership grew in leaps and bounds this year and our targets for the year were well exceeded. With only one part time employee, the time input from our voluntary Board was very significant and the outstanding achievements and information flow to our membership base was exceptional. My huge personal thanks to many of our board members who carried out this work with great enthusiasm and skill.
BISA Annual Business Awards
I have to give special mention to our annual awards dinner and that the President hotel in November. It was attended by over 180 guests and was a huge success showcasing the depth and quality of our extensive membership base. Particular congratulations to the very first Hall of Fame inductee, Ivor Queally, for both the award itself and the incredible achievements of Ivor and the Queally Group in South Africa. Further congratulations to Ivor on winning the E&Y international entrepreneur of the year in Dublin. The business award winners on the night were Ardagh Group, businesswoman of the year Fran Beighton, businessman Liam Tomlin and SMME Mainline Civil engineering, who were chosen from outstanding shortlists.
The SA VISA requirement for Ireland
Probably one of the most difficult things to digest this year was the introduction of the new mandatory Visa for Ireland in August. There were certainly teething problems and we did get a lot of feedback from members, that they were having issues and problems. There was a lot of misunderstanding as to the role of the embassy in the processing of visas. This is done by the Department of justice in Dublin in association with the VFS organisation here in South Africa. I must stress that the embassy have been consistently helpful in dealing with problems and issues certainly for our members but also for the public in general. We recently had a lengthy meeting with the team Ireland members and assurances were given and accepted that many of the teething problems have now been sorted and that the time taken to issue visas is back to a much more manageable one of 3 to 4 weeks. There is also a new helpline/tracking system open, details of which we posted to all our member. As BISA, we will continue to assist members where ever possible in working with the embassies in Johannesburg and Dublin.
Plans for 2025
As we move on to the end of the first quarter century of the 2000 era, we believe there is much to look forward to, and exciting opportunities ahead in the Irish and South African markets for our members to explore together. The G20 and D20 is particularly exciting and the invitation from South Africa to Ireland to be part of it ads another dimension to our rapidly growing relationship.
Whether it be in Sports, culture, tourism, business or the political arena it really does seem like 2025 is going to be a huge year. We all want to be a part of that. The new board will continue where we left off this year, but new developments on full-time staff to facilitate further back up the services, will certainly be on the agenda. For this we need funding, your continued support and to continue to grow our membership base.
We will also continue to canvass for direct flights between our two countries as the numbers of travellers grows strongly. Most of our European neighbours have regular flights and increased the frequency in 2024.
Final thanks you’s
Thanks to our board members for their combined efforts during the year, to our Hon Sec Claire and Hon treasurer Andrew, admin assistant Melanie, our Ambassador Austin Gormley and our main sponsor The President Hotel who facilitated so many of our functions throughout the year.
We wish all our members and associates a wonderful festive season and great health, success and happiness for 2025.
Go mbeirimid beo ar an am seo aris. May we all live to gather here again next year. SLAINTE.
