Today we know many ways and systems of coding territories, regions and countries, and one of them tells us, for example, that the RSA country is the Republic of South Africa (abbreviation for Republic of South Africa). A universal or some common system does not yet exist, however there are often used international three-letter and two-letter systems, which were proposed by ISO (International Organization for Standardization). And if we find the letters "RSA" on the purchased products, the country is determined simply. In another system, it is also referred to as "ZA". The name of each state or even individual territories are displayed in two or three letters of the Latin alphabet. Since South Africa is one of the largest exporters in the world, knowledge of this abbreviation is useful to everyone.
What country is it
RSA - this sign of the Republic of South Africa, can be seen quite often, because in the group of the twenty-five largest world exporters, South Africa constantly takes one of the first places. Foreign trade brings to this state up to fifty percent of GDP, and the volume of export always exceeds significantly the volume of import. The RSA sign (country of origin) can be found on gold and platinum products, all kinds of minerals that are mined and processed in South Africa.
Equipment and machinery, drinks and food (more than thirty percent of all exported drinks are excellent wines, and among the products the whole world prefers famous fruit preserves, sugar and high-quality tobacco) are the main export items. Almost all products are branded with RSA. Which country can afford to export more than import? Only very, very rich. It is rare to meet a person who does not know which country is RSA; goods from there are found everywhere in the world. The main partners of South Africa are China, Japan, the USA, the European Union, and all of Africa. The Republic of South Africa trades quite a bit with Russia, but even here the RSA product labeling is quite well known.
Secret of success
The republic is developing extremely dynamically, and its market on a global scale is very promising. It uniquely combines the richest natural resources with a well-developed economic infrastructure. The technological base is extremely wide and the engineering, technical and managerial personnel are highly qualified.
In addition, the market for very cheap labor - both skilled and not - is very extensive, and therefore capital investments from different countries have literally chosen South African entrepreneurial activity. All this suggests that under the RSA brand this country is already supplying the world market and will supply it more and more widely.
Russian business in South Africa
The most invested in South Africa are the United Kingdom and the United States of America, however, Russian business is not left behind. The largest volume of investments goes into South African telecommunications, energy, automotive and light industry. Russia now occupies one of the leading places in terms of investment - up to seventeen percent of the total. We export to South Africa metals and all kinds of products from them, as well as grain.
All products shipped from Russia are labeled “Made in Russia” (using the two-letter system “RU” or the three-letter system “RUS”, codes that are used mainly for the delivery of goods). Just as in South Africa we have already accepted our marking, in Russia, too, questions about RSA will soon run out - the designation of which country these letters are. Cooperation between the two countries goes in the most promising areas. This is mining and processing, exploration, construction of hydroelectric power stations, oil and gas pipelines, engineering. Many contacts in the military-technical sphere.
international delivery
It is for the convenience of delivery through international channels that there are two- and three-letter marking systems. Most often this is an abbreviation. Which country RSA - we have already figured out. Now about other territories. Products from Australia are abbreviated AU or AUS. You can also find a more detailed version: Made in Australia (made in Australia). Austria and Australia were not at all confused by trading people, but by American politicians (there was such a curiosity once on the air). If we see AT or AUT, it is Made in Austria (made in Austria). Almost every country has its own designations. And Made in RSA, by analogy, does not represent any difficulty at all, although such a designation is quite rare. More often like this: Made in South Africa. And two letters of South Africa are designated by the delivery system as ZA (or three - ZAF). As you can see, this is not even an abbreviation.
The most common designations and abbreviations of the country will be listed, of course, not completely. Argentina is designated as follows: AR or ARG (Made in Argentina). Belgium - BE or BEL (Made in Belgium). England - United Kingdom (Great Britain), designated GB or GBR. We remember Hungary by green peas and corn - made in Hungary, designated for delivery as HU or HUN. We have a significant amount of German goods, and therefore everyone saw the designation DE or DEU, and also recognized the inscription "made in Germany". Greece has it all! And that “everything” that gets to us from there is labeled GR, GRC or made in Greece. Israel - IL or ISR, made in Israel; India - IN, IND, made in India; Spain - ES, ESP, made in Spain; Italy - IT, ITA, made in Italy; Canada - CA, CAN, made in Canada; China already learned everything by heart, but just in case: CN, CHN, made in China; we will buy the most delicious tangerines for the New Year with the marking MA or MAR (made in Morocco) ... And so on, the list is too long for a small article. It is much more informative to get to know one of these countries, which is sometimes labeled RSA - the Republic of South Africa.
South African Economy
The resource base in this country is the richest, quite comparable with the Russian one. South Africa ranks first in reserves of minerals such as platinum and gold, manganese and aluminum glucates. Moreover, minerals are not only mined, but also processed here, and the South African Republic practically does not trade raw materials as such. South Africa is famous for its diamonds and also takes the first place in the world in their mining. Moreover, locally made diamonds are especially appreciated in the world. Russian diamonds, no matter how offensive it is, are mostly faceted here, too, in Africa.
The agricultural sector in South Africa is so large that it fully provides the country with livestock and crop products. In addition, the Republic of South Africa exports its agricultural products to many countries around the world on an ongoing basis. Only six states can afford it. The financial market is highly developed, they rely on the clarity and reliability of banking and insurance services, making extensive use of the most advanced technologies. Five banks of South Africa among the five hundred largest in the world.
What are the codes
We already know that the code can be alphabetic or digital, they represent the countries and territories in the processing of data during communications. There are a lot of systems, as already mentioned. The most commonly used of them is the ISO 3166 standard, which contains codes that belong to countries and territories. Each country has three main codes, two of which we have already examined. The third system is a three-digit system that is used by the UN. Nearly two hundred and fifty countries have their own codes and are included in the United Nations Special Bulletin .
In order for the country to fall into this number, you need to have membership in the UN and any specialized agency of this organization, as well as take part in drafting the code of laws. A region or country will always receive a new letter code if its name changes. The numerical code can only change when the boundaries change. There are backup codes, including outdated ones. Two-letter ones are used as the basis for currency codes and domain names on the Internet. In the Russian Federation and CIS countries, GOST 7.67-94 applies to refer to codes of country names.
Barcode
Not always the buyer receives the goods indicating the manufacturer. Today, technology is so advanced that all information becomes encoded, and most often graphic encoding. For example, a barcode that is read by technical means, not by the human eye. Although, when we see the numbers 600-601 on the sequence of white and black stripes, we can be sure that the manufacturer of this product is South Africa.
This invention is already seventy years old, but in the foreseeable future it has the most brilliant prospects. In 1948, at the University of Philadelphia, some graduate students developed a labeling system for product control. Marking was applied to the packaging or to the product itself. In 1952, the invention was patented. Over time, this method of coding goods improved, and acquired new features. Now we know linear, strip codes that can be read in one direction - only horizontally, the amount of information in them is limited. And two-dimensional symbols can already encode quite large volumes, where almost everything can be found out about marked products.
Application
Most often, product coding is used in trade. Originally developed in America, the UPC system contained twelve digits and was so convenient that Europe also borrowed it. However, the range of codes was quite small, and it was quickly snapped up for products from Canada and the USA, so European manufacturers were forced to trick themselves by registering their companies or individual products in the USA. As a result, I had to add the thirteenth digit to the code to expand the range. And now you can see from the left edge an additional Arabic numeral.
As a result, the coding of thirteen digits ceased to depend on a single registrar, and for European goods it is no longer necessary to enter additional fields, despite the fact that the barcode of the American manufacturer has not changed. The structure of this graphic image can be easily divided into five zones. The first three digits - the prefix from the national organization, then - from four to six digits indicate the manufacturer of this product. Then follows the code of the actual product of three or five digits. Finally - a control number and an additional field.
Not only country
The famous public key encryption algorithm is also called RSA. And this abbreviation is found in this meaning hardly less than the code encrypting manufacturers from the Republic of South Africa, because it is the basis for all cryptographic systems that are used in particular for computer protection. And it all began in 1976 after the publication of an article on cryptography by Martin Hellman and Whitfield Diffie. Real scientists became interested in the information, and they found the necessary mathematical functions that made it possible to implement the model presented in the article.
The algorithm was found, and therefore received a name made up of the first letters of the developers - Ronald Rivest, Adi Shamir (his surname begins with the letter "S") and Leonard Adleman - RSA. And today, this algorithm with various variations is used in the most popular and most important cryptography products. It is RSA that holds the entire electronic commerce, produces related products - tokens, software, etc. This abbreviation for so many people symbolizes security, fairness and reliability.
RSA brand
And this is not all the territories where you can see the abbreviation RSA. As many as you like in online stores of various goods with such letters in the name. These are refrigerators, silencers, car speakers, even Chinese porcelain tiles. In addition, there is a brand - RSA cutting systems GmbH from the German city of Schwerte, and the catalog presented by this company is very, very extensive.
It is a world leader in the production of high-speed disk cutting machines, and specialists also know many other equipment under the RSA brand for processing a wide variety of metal products. RSA high-speed machines are delivered to such famous enterprises as RTD, RTW, Maxxstahl, Caterpillar, Benteler, Daimler AG and others. Even Russian procurement industries often purchase these products.
RSA Insurance Group
A huge number of people know this abbreviation by the name of the international insurance group, which is located in the UK with its head office in London and provides its services in one hundred forty countries of the world, and in thirty-two it conducts direct operations. The insurance group has more than seventeen million customers, its shares are successfully traded on the London Stock Exchange and have an FTSE-100 index.
In the Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, Hong Kong, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, this insurance company operates as part of the RSA group brand. In other regions, it is called differently. For example, in Denmark - Codan, and in Poland - Link 4.
Countries and abbreviations
Apparently, due to the popularity of this letter combination, the Republic of South Africa in two- and three-letter codes is designated not RSA, but ZA or ZAF. However, sometimes you can come across a pure abbreviation, since a very large number of product coding systems are used. A lot of goods are now produced, and without coding it is simply impossible to do. That is why a code is formed for each and is assigned according to the classification grouping to one or another classification object.
A code, as already mentioned, is a collection of characters that are used for the classification identification of each object, its identification and ranking. It does not help a simple reduction - RSA. The country is rarely indicated by the abbreviation. It is necessary to make sure that any product can be identified among many similar ones. A code system is a carrier of information about it, since each object has an individual code that is present in all documents.