Cape Town - South Africa is open for business and wants to expand the footprint of its companies across the African continent and globally, President Jacob Zuma declared while addressing Team South Africa at the World Economic Forum's (WEF) annual meeting in Davos Switzerland.
“We are here to say to investors that South Africa is where they should be, and we have very good reasons for saying so. We have a relatively diversified economic base,” Zuma told members of his cabinet, business leaders and representatives of the WEF.
“We have an economy that offers world class business services in areas such as information and communication technology, transport and logistics, and financial and professional services.
Our country is becoming a frontier for new sectors of Foreign Direct Investment such as the green economy, oil and gas and ocean economy sectors such as shipbuilding.”
The President was at pains to point out that South Africa was investing billions of rand in expanding its electricity infrastructure as power constraints continue to hamper the growth of the economy.
“We are diversifying our energy mix and have attracted substantial private sector investment in clean energy, through the Renewables Independent Power Producers Programme.
This has been a flagship programme for us,” he said. “The government is currently evaluating bids for coal Independent Power Purchases from the first bid window which will total two thousand five hundred megawatts of power when completed.
The government is also preparing the procurement of three thousand one hundred (3100) megawatts of gas to power.” Zuma also moved to assure investors that his government took seriously their calls for removing the red tape associated with doing business in South Africa.
“In response, our Government will be introducing an 'Invest South Africa' (InvestSA) initiative during the course of the year,” he said. “Work has already begun to establish an interdepartmental clearing house, or one stop shop service, which will be rolled to all provinces. I have established an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Investment to work on this important project, which I personally chair, assisted by the Minister of Trade and Industry.”
African News Agency