SA welcomes investors
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa told the World Economic Forum that South Africa is in a state of renewal and is ready for business
South Africa has taken to the global stage to tell investors that it is ready and open for business and the country is in a state of renewal.
This is the message that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Team South Africa delegation took to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland recently.
At a pre-WEF breakfast held in Sandton before he left, the Deputy President emphasised the importance of South Africa’s participation in the WEF. He said increasing investor confidence and addressing the prime challenges facing the country are of key importance.
South Africa’s involvement at the WEF dates back to 2009, when
Team South Africa first participated and focused on stakeholder influencer opportunities to lobby the WEF community, business and government on the African Agenda.
The WEF is an independent, international organisation that aims to contribute to more positive outcomes in the world by engaging business, political leaders, academia and other leaders of society to inform and shape the global, regional and industry agendas.
This year, the forum was held from 23 to 26 January 2018 under the theme “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World”. South Africa’s theme for the WEF was “Reigniting Growth Momentum”.
The WEF provides a platform that promotes the mobilisation of public private sector partnerships, business investor engagements and media interface.
A time for renewal
A key theme of the Deputy President’s message was renewal.
“We want to renew ourselves as a country. We look at areas that need renewal. We take note that the political uncertainty that worried a lot of our citizens last year has been dealt with, and we now have a new leadership [ANC National Executive Committee] that is going to take the country forward,” he said.
Deputy President Ramaphosa stressed that compact building would be an important feature of what needs to be done to move the country forward.
According to him, the key components of compact building include policy certainty, economic recovery, stabilising state-owned enterprises (SOEs), addressing corruption and state capture.
He said through compact building, government and business have managed to put their heads together to ensure that they foster further investment in the country and address the issue of jobs, particularly for young people.
“Compact building has put us in good stead and I believe it is going to continue to put us in good stead. Let us continue being committed to this process.”
The Deputy President said that while there would be obstacles, the country needs to “keep the momentum and keep moving forward, and address all the challenges and problems that we will face along the way”.
Currently, the most important task is to address the challenge of jobs, inequality and poverty, which can only be done by helping the economy to recover.
Deputy President Ramaphosa acknowledged that neither government nor the private sector alone can transform South Africa and urged all role players to work together to achieve this purpose.
“We want to make South Africa an
attractive domain for investment. Given the country’s downgrading by the rating agencies, it is going to be a mammoth task to get us out of this trench,” he noted.
Rebuilding investor confidence
During the forum,Team SA sought to reinforce the significance of Africa’s inclusive and development agenda, and to rebuild investor confidence in the South African economy.
Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said WEF is a very critical platform for South Africa, not only to profile the country but to showcase the continent as a whole. He said South Africa remains a gateway into the African continent.
“We are working very hard to ensure that we streamline our visa regime in order to provide headquarter facilities to many international investors that wish to come into the continent,” said Minister Gigaba.
“We will continue to highlight the positives about South Africa with regard to our deep capital markets, the fact that we have a very advanced and modern financial system, we have the most advanced infrastructure capacity on the continent, and we have a number of other capabilities that will assist international investors to be able to access the African continent,” he said.
As part of the delegation, Minister Gigaba sought bilateral engagements on the side-lines of various formal platforms at the forum.
South Africa participated actively through the business leadership that accompanied the Deputy President and Ministers.
Minister Gigaba said there shouldn’t be any doubt among international investors that South Africa is open for business and respects property rights.
Tackling corruption
With regard to the challenges facing SOEs, the Deputy President said there is a need to work together to stabilise the entities.
The Deputy President said a variety of measures need to be taken at a governance level to ensure that people of the highest calibre are placed on the boards of SOEs.
He also welcomed the establishment of the commission of enquiry into state capture announced by President Jacob Zuma.
“We are looking forward to the finalisation of the terms of reference for this enquiry. We have said that we want to see action being taken against those who have done wrong things and we have already started seeing the beginning processes of precisely that,” he said.
“The National Prosecuting Authority is beginning to move and we welcome the actions that they are beginning to take and we want them to act with urgency, to increase the tempo of the actions that need to be taken,” he added. Other Ministers in the delegation to the WEF included Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Jeff Radebe; Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel; Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies; Public Works Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko and International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite NkoanaMashabane.