At the fourth annual South African Investment Conference (Saic), the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), the Northern Cape, and Gauteng received the greatest investment promises from big industry, with R22 billion, R16 billion, and R14.8 billion respectively.
Scatec, a Norwegian renewable energy business, has committed the most money to the Northern Cape province of South Africa this year.
The aforementioned investment pledges apply to those made by big industry towards a single province, and do not include pledges made by investors in more than one province or across the country, as well as public sector investments.
The Free State came in fourth, attracting R14.3 billion, followed by Limpopo with R13.8 billion and the Western Cape which received about R10 billion in single-province focused investor pledges.
The investment drive which Ramaphosa founded in 2018, soon after assuming his role as president of the country, has so far managed to secure about R1.14 trillion in investment pledges, reaching 95% of the R1.2 trillion target that he set to be reached by 2023.
So far, R316 billion of the R774 billion pledged in the previous (third) annual investment conference has already been invested, while the rest is still in the processing stages.
Before the 2022 conference, the country had registered 152 investment pledges; 45 of these have already been completed while 57 remain under construction and 15 are said to be on hold because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ramaphosa says. “The investments that have been realised since our first conference have created jobs, increased localisation and have expanded local value chains. They have brought skills, they have also brought technology and know-how into our economy,”
Delivering a keynote address at the event, President Ramaphosa called on investors to contribute to the country’s growth story, saying that it is now focused on its journey towards reform, recovery and rebuilding.
Ramaphosa further reaffirmed the government’s position on reducing the red tape involved in doing business in the country and facilitating economic reform that will allow for economic growth.
