SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa trade minister seeks a more integrated Africa
Rob Davies , South Africa ' s minister of trade and industry , tells Courtney Fingar how the country ' s renowned reputation in the motor industry and renewable energy is being used to spearhead its FDI policy , and why he has high hopes for greater African integration when it comes to trade .
IMPROVING INVESTMENT PERFOR- MANCE IS ONE OF THE ELEMENTS IN WHAT WE CALL OUR ' NINE POINT PLAN
Q : How do you view the investment competitiveness of South Africa in terms of both weaknesses and strengths ?
A : Improving investment performance is one of the elements in what we call our ' Nine Point Plan ' – which is to confront the challenges that we find ourselves in and see where we deliver a clear value proposition on a sectoral basis .
We ’ ve seen that foreign investors have responded quite positively so the two areas I would cite would be the motor industry , where we ’ ve seen a very significant number of original equipment manufacturers investing in the South African motor industry , and newcomers coming in as well from places such as China . And the other area I would cite is the renewable energy , independent power-producers programme . We have the largest renewable energy programme on the African continent , but also one where there ’ s a recognition that it ’ s one of the better designed programmes on a world scale . The broader lessons from this are that the way to boost investment is to develop clear value propositions and market them .
Second , we have our investment promotion agency , which is now called ' Invest South Africa '. It has been upgraded in its scope of work and is overseen by a committee , which is chaired by the president [ of South Africa , Jacob Zuma ]. Some of the weakness we ’ ve had is that [ there have been ] a number of regulatory decisions that have had to be taken in order for any investment to actually happen . Now we ’ ve got sharper tools to be able to smooth the way .
Q : How important is trade integration for your FDI positioning ?
A : That ’ s our priority as far as trade is concerned – to promote development integration on the African continent . We ’ re part of the tripartite process [ Southern African Development Community , or SADC , Comesa and the East African Community Free Trade Area ] but we ’ re also supportive of a continental free-trade area . It ’ s taking longer than is desirable at this point , but we ’ re doing our best to try to move some of the process further forward . One of the ones that is moving , which is quite relevant to us , is that SACU – the South African Customs Union – and the East African Community are now engaged in serious line-by-line trade negotiations . We are starting the process of trading services , and in SADC we ’ ve got somewhere .
The infrastructure building programme on the African continent [ the Programme of Infrastructure Development Africa – PIDA ] is an integral part of [ the plans ], and it ’ s making some progress . The north-south corridor programme is making some progress too . All of these are steps we need to take to ensure a greater volume of intra-regional trade , but also intra-regional trade in value-added products .
22 Business Times Africa | 2016