Davies woos Musk to invest at ‘home’

Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies, who attended yesterday’s Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) forum in Washington DC, made the most of an opportunity at a business breakfast on Sunday to encourage an investment by South African-born entrepreneur Elon Musk in the country of his birth.

The department said Davies, who was meeting with investors at the breakfast, had urged Musk’s American company, Tesla, to work with his department to explore the possibility of setting up the manufacturing of products in South Africa.

The statement added that Tesla, a groundbreaking manufacturer of electric cars and batteries, had expressed an interest in investing in South Africa.

Davies had confirmed that South Africa’s auto programme already had additional incentives in place for electric vehicles.

The 15th Agoa forum was entitled: Maximising US-Africa Trade and Investment: Agoa and Beyond.

Agoa is a unilateral US trade preference programme that provides duty-free, quota-free treatment for more than 6 400 tariff lines into the US market.

US President Barack Obama signed into law the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015. – ANA