President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on the United Kingdom to seek new opportunities and partnerships on investment, climate change and green industry, science, innovation and technology as well as trade in goods and services in South Africa.
Ramaphosa made this call while addressing a banquet hosted by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, at the Guildhall.
“In 2020, the stock of foreign direct investment from the United Kingdom into South Africa was larger than any other country. Four years ago, we embarked on an ambitious investment drive to attract some £60 billion in new investment in the South African economy over a five-year period. We have already reached £55 billion in investment commitments, of which £6.5 billion has come from UK investors,” said President Ramaphosa.
“South Africa will once again host the 5th South Africa Investment Conference in April 2023, we look forward to welcoming many British companies to this important event to explore investment opportunities, joint ventures and industrial partnerships,” the President said.
He said South Africa is a gateway to a dynamic continent that is expanding its production, rapidly urbanising and has a young population.
“South Africa is a leading mining economy, with proven capabilities in advanced manufacturing, science and technology. South Africa has sophisticated financial systems and Africa’s deepest capital market, where the rule of law is strong and there is firm protection of contracts and property rights. South Africa hosts many leading multinational corporations,” the President said.
“For South Africa, this opportunity lies in the effort to build a greener base for manufacturing and energy generation. There is potential for significant partnerships on electric vehicle production, green hydrogen and green steel production. Already we have built a large renewable energy generation sector and are rapidly growing it as a response to our energy challenges,” the President said.
He said South Africa sees a new partnership that will enable funding, know-how and technical support mobilised on a vast scale to help the country achieve a just transition from a carbon-intensive economy to industrialisation driven by renewable energy.
“The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare Africa’s vulnerability with respect to the supply of medicines, medical equipment and vaccines. We used all the ingenuity of South African manufacturers to create production capacity for medical-grade face masks, hand sanitisers, COVID-19 test kits and ventilators. Our excellent genome sequencing capacity was used to detect new variants of COVID-19. Given the strong research and innovation record of British companies, the new partnership can improve collaboration and unlock joint funding and investment in developing Africa’s medical supply hub,” President Ramaphosa said.
