Ramaphosa initiated the annual event last year as part of re-igniting the country’s economy and addressing growing unemployment, but has over time been criticised for organising talk shops that do not produce concrete results in terms of job creation.
Ramaphosa said critics were not realistic in their expectations about his five-year term investment drive. He said commitments made by business would create “enormous jobs” and revive the economy in the long term.
“Some people tend to say we want to see all that happening tomorrow. Life does not work that way. We need to take a medium- and a long-term view. We need to remain focused on what we want to achieve.”
For the next five years, the president aims to attract about R1.2trillion in investment. Last year’s investment raked in about R300bn. He maintained most of the money received was already ploughed into programmes.
