South Africa’s Investment Conference has to date achieved 95% of its R1.2-trillion target.
Since 2018, government has been on a mission to attract over a trillion rand in investments.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said the previous investment summits yielded many positive results, especially following the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, 49 companies from different industries pledged over R200 billion, inching government closer to its goal.
Invest South Africa acting Deputy Director-General Yunus Hoosen says government aims to attract R60 billion from pledges at the summit this year.
“Thus far we have achieved a target of 95% of R1.4 trillion, our target for this fifth investment conference is R60 billion, we expect to make a number of announcements from many companies both domestic and foreign as well as have a programme which looks at policy reform that will look at areas that we can unlock for energy.”
This while, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut South Africa’s economic growth prospects to 0.1%, due to structural constraints including the country’s looming energy crisis.
Efficient Group Economist Dawie Roodt says the country is currently not an investable destination.
“Unfortunately, the reality is South Africa is not that very investable destination and there are many reasons for that. We are all aware of things like for example corruption and incompetence, infrastructure that is collapsing, crime levels in South Africa and of cause the lack of electricity, those are all the reasons why foreign and local investors are simply not going to invest huge amounts in South Africa.”
The next conference where President Ramaphosa is to announce a new investment target of R2 trillion over the next five years, is expected to attract more than 1 300 delegates.
