Businesses pledge close to R110bn at Cyril’s third investment conference
19 November 2020

Businesses pledge close to R110bn at Cyril’s third investment conferenceSA looks set to achieve its ambitious investment target of R1.2trn by 2023 despite the impact of the pandemic.

The first day of this year’s SA Investment Conference may have been hit by webcast hitches on Tuesday, but the event concluded on a surprisingly positive note on Wednesday with businesses pledging new investments totalling R109.6 billion.

More than 50 investments were announced in both greenfields and expansion projects across the country, taking investment commitments made over the past three years at the conference to R773 billion.

A notably buoyed President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his closing address at the Sandton Convention Centre that despite the impact of Covid-19, South Africa is “firmly on track to achieve its target of securing R1.2 trillion in investment over five years”.

Ramaphosa set the ambitious target of securing $100 billion in new investment back in 2018 when he became head of state and the rand was trading at around R12 to the US dollar.

“We have secured new investment pledges from some 50 companies to the value of R109.6 billion. This takes total investment commitments over the last three years to R773 billion, meaning that we have achieved 64% of our five-year target,” he said.

Show of faith

The president said that while the focus of the conference this year was on the implementation of secured investments, the fact that so many new investments were secured means companies are looking to invest beyond the pandemic.

“It is notable that this year’s conference takes place in an extremely subdued economic environment [due to Covid-19],” he added.

“There were times at the height of the virus that we as government were asking whether we should even have the SA Investment Conference this year. We are holding this conference in a difficult time, but it is comforting to see the new investment pledges we have secured …

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Credits to Moneyweb/Suren Naidoo.