‘Southern Africa is a promising growth region for all of Daimler’s commercial vehicles’ was the message as Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA), together with Daimler Trucks & Buses, opened the Regional Centre Southern Africa (RCSA) on Thursday.

Even with the tough economic times in South Africa and the continent at large, Dr Wolfgang Bernhardt, who is a member of the Board of Management for Daimler Trucks & Buses, believes in a brighter future.

“Yes the oil price is at its lowest in a long time, commodity prices are low, agriculture product prices are low and many of the African nations are facing financial difficulty but we are in this for the long term. We’re not only looking at this year or the next, we’re looking over the next ten years,” says Bernhardt.

Bernhardt says the RCSA will operate out of Johannesburg and transport its vehicles into Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique.

On Tuesday, the Regional Centre for East, Central, and West Africa started its operations based in Nairobi, Kenya. Bernhardt says that given the economic situation in Africa, they will seek other solutions in keeping their product affordable.

“We’re looking at also distributing reliable, second hand trucks in third world countries for customers who would rather purchase them. We’ll have service and maintenance plans for these trucks for our customer’s convenience,” says Bernhardt.

Source: CNBC Africa