Pretoria, 23 March 2022. President Cyril Ramaphosa will open the fourth South African Investment Conference (SAIC) on Thursday [subs: 24 March] at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg. In 2018 the president committed to raising R1.2 trillion in five years to boost economic growth and stimulate employment.
Since that year three investment conferences have been held. The Covid-19 pandemic caused a postponement in 2021. To date R774 billion has been pledged – two-thirds of the goal. The investments were spread across mining, manufacturing, agriculture, the digital economy and more.
This leaves another R426 billion to be raised in the next two years.
Of the 152 pledges made during the first three investment conferences, 45 have been completed or will soon be completed and 57 are under construction. Some 40% of the committed investment pledges had been expended by the end of February.
Also speaking at the all-day conference will be dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a South African now residing in the United States, who established a Covid-19 vaccine plant in Cape Town. He is a transplant surgeon, billionaire businessman, bio-scientist and media-owner, known for his development of Abraxane which is known for its efficacy against lung, breast and pancreatic cancer.
The morning will kick off with an investment announcement by the African Development Bank, followed by a panel discussion on the South African investment case. Late in the afternoon the focus will switch to growing opportunities in Africa, via investments made locally.
The rest of the day will be given over to a wide range of interests, including improving the business environment, focus on infrastructure finance and digital opportunities, tourism, impact investing, the small business sector, energy, mining, manufacturing plus a discussion on social compacts to support investments at district level.
Of key interest will be South Africa’s creation of an attractive business platform by focusing on economic growth, the rapid introduction of economic reforms, including improving the regulatory environment.
The full programme can be found here: https://demo.piidigital.co.za/saic/programme/
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