DAVOS – Addressing the burning issue of youth unemployment is one of the key challenges which the country's delegation to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, hope to address through its investment drive.
Minister of International Relations Lindiwe Sisulu, speaking on the sidelines of the WEF summit, said: "We are very keen to deal with the issue of rising unemployment, especially among the young. The President (Cyril Ramaphosa) is very determined to deal with that."
Official agency Stats SA lists South Africa's unemployment rate among young people aged 15 to 34 as 38.2 percent in the first quarter of 2018 although many believe this figure to be much higher.
President Ramaphosa is leading a strong team to the 2019 WEF annual meeting as South Africa aims to ramp up international investment in a bid to overcome slow economic growth and despairing levels of unemployment.
Earlier this month, the World Bank cut its 2019 projections for economic growth in SA from last year's estimate of 1.8 percent to 1.3 percent.
Ramaphosa is being accompanied to Davos by Sisulu, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies, Minister of Public Enterprise Pravin Gordhan, Minister of Economic Development Ebrahim Patel, Minister of Communications Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi and Minister of Energy Jeff Radebe.
Presidential Investment Envoys Trevor Manuel and Jacques Marie and a range of leading business personalities also form part of the SA delegation.