Investors to the 2020 South African Investment Conference have pledged to pump some US$7.3 billion into various projects, mainly in the Covid19-hit tourism and hospitality industries, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday.
Ramaphosa was speaking at the end of a two-day investment indaba which set a target of $100 billion as seed funding to trigger a massive infrastructure development in the country.
The annual investment conference, inaugurated in 2018 as one of the newly- elected president’s initiatives, was held partly virtual on Thursday — with 50 companies pledging the $7.3 billion funding.
This year’s conference brought the total amount of investment pledges to $52 billion worth of investments in the last three years, still falling short of the $100 billion set target.
Closing the gathering, the president said the world was still very much in the throes of a “devastating pandemic that has thrown global markets into disarray.”
“Tough decisions have had to be made on investments, on expansion and on entry into new markets.
“It is therefore significant that you have all come here – both in person and virtually – to show that this is a country you believe in and want to see succeed,” he said at the conference held in Sandton, an upmarket Johannesburg suburb.
Noting this year’s conference was held in an extremely subdued economic climate, thanks to the pandemic, Ramaphosa said securing the $7.3 billion investment commitments “is a remarkable achievement.”
This showed progress the country had made since the 2018 investment drive to stimulate sustainable, equitable and inclusive growth as the foundation for socio-economic transformation, Ramaphosa said.
He said some of the investment commitments made this year were in sectors that have been hard-hit by the pandemic, especially the tourism and hospitality industries.
These investments pledges would go a long way in the industries’ recovery, the president said.
NM/jn/APA