Signed on Monday in Johannesburg, the Advisory Services Agreement was signed by Ministry of Trade and Industry director general Lionel October and Kevin Njiraini, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Regional Director for Southern Africa.
The IFC is a member of the Washington-based World Bank Group.
The partnership is aimed at improving the business environment for domestic entrepreneurs and undertaking policy and institutional reform to enhance foreign direct investment inflows, according to October.
Business regulation, investment policy and promotion, and market regulation and competition policy are the focus areas of the partnership, he added.
The advisory agreement formalises the partnership between South Africa and the World Bank Group to support the national reform effort led by the Economic Development Ministry and National Treasury.
World Bank support to South Africa would be provided in partnership with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, and the Prosperity Fund of the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
The project will deploy a Country Private Sector Diagnostic, a standard World Bank Group tool to identify industry sectors that could attract significant domestic and foreign investments and deliver positive development impacts in the near term.