Western Cape Premier Lynne Brown told an international trade and investment conference on Thursday that the current economic meltdown in the rest of the world presented an opportunity for South Africa.

"One, two or three other countries' poison is another's meat," she said. And she insisted that a combined bout of sneezing overseas did not mean that South Africa would catch a cold.

"We should not be oblivious to the opportunities in the midst of struggle," she told the conference organised by the Department of Trade and Industry in Cape Town.

She pointed specifically to number of cranes that greet visitors to the city, saying she could not remember when there was so much activity in the construction industry. She said the annual growth in the industry has accelerated from 5.8 percent in 2004 to 8.8 percent in 2005 to 06. "Last year it was forecast that growth would be 12 percent until 2010," she said.

Among investment advantages she claimed for the province was strong government. She signalled a much warmer relationship between herself and the opposition Democratic Alliance's mayor of Cape Town, Helen Zille, saying that both the province and the city had strong governments.

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