Bilateral Business Development entails services to facilitate and develop business-to-business relations between South(ern) Africa and the Netherlands. SANEC assists in all aspects of development and marketing of emerging businesses and strengthening existing businesses as well as promoting public and private investment. Services include tailor made matchmaking both for companies on individual business visits as well as for companies part of trade missions.

Members and business relations can attend regularly organised workshops, seminars and business forums on specific topics, for example the BBBEE Workshop, Doing Business Workshops and Business Forum Namibia. SANEC also regularly conducts market research and analysis for individual companies as well as on request of the (local) government. Furthermore SANEC offers incentive advisory services, assists with and provides information for your trade enquiries, arranges individual business meetings with other members. 

Many members have made extensive use of the bilateral business development services over the years. Solely for individual matchmaking SANEC has organised hundreds of tailor made programmes during the past years in South Africa, the Netherlands and also in Southern Africa.

For instance the past year individual matchmaking visits have been arranged for Bollegraaf Recycling Machinery, Cimcool Industrial Products, Cape Gourmet Mushrooms, Kollo Technology, Wesgro, Rebel Consult, Mill Wood and Port of Rotterdam. For all these  companies SANEC organised a tailor made programme, set up meetings with counterparts and relevant contacts as well as assisted with logistics locally.

In 2007 the first Human Capital Management and Skills Development trade mission to South Africa took place. This trade mission was organised by SANEC upon a joint initiative with SANEC member OAVM. Dutch companies with their core business in Training and Coaching, HR, Consultancy and Leadership visited South Africa to meet with South African counterparts and discuss relevant issues on Human Capital Management and Skills Development as identified by the South African government under JIPSA (Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition).

The trade mission included workshops, company visits,  presentations by leading figures in the industry as Dirk Brand (Strategic Global Network), Eric Mafuna (African Leadership Group) and Terry Meyer (Leadership SA) and over one hundred partnership meetings. At least half of the participating companies returned to the Netherlands with positive contacts leading to a contract and definitive cooperation.

Another successful trade mission was the Water Technology Trade Mission in February  2007, organised in cooperation with SenterNovem and the Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP). The aim of this trade mission was to stimulate collaboration in R&D between the Netherlands and South Africa. SANEC organised the local matchmaking for the participating Dutch companies.

One of the matchmaking meetings was between DHV, SSI, Delft University and the University of Stellenbosch, which led to a joint project proposal for a project at Overstrand Municipality in the Western Cape. This project is to be implemented in the near future.