South Africa has won the Investment Promotion Award at the 2019 Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) held in Dubai. AIM recognised InvestSA for facilitating the most innovative and digitally orientated investment projects for 2018. The 9th Annual Investment Meeting attracted Invest Promotion Agencies from around world, delegates from 140 countries, government officials, practitioners and investors. AIM is the world’s leading FDI platform and themed this year, Mapping the future of FDI: Enriching World Economies through Digital Globalization.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies says the award reaffirms the commitments announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa during his Second State of the Nation Address to align country’s economic development priorities on securing innovative investment projects in digital and technology fields to ensure the country is able to achieve Vision 2030 goals.
Davies emphasis that South Africa is a renowned investment destination that protects investor rights, is signatory to international treaties that reinforce trade in goods and services, and safeguards intellectual property.
“Policy certainty on SA ICT landscape and noticeable improvements on FDI ranking indices have underpinned the strides South Africa has made in securing investment in digital, ICT and 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) industries,” says Minister Rob Davies.
Minister Davies indicates that InvestSA will continue to lead efforts in improving the investment digital infrastructure environment, facilitation of digital skills development initiatives and with domestic stakeholder’s address supply side constraints to enhance attractiveness of the sector. InvestSA has held targeted investment drives geared at growing uptake and usage of digital services that will support ICT enabled solutions across South Africa industrial sectors.
The award not only highlights South Africa’s propensity to exploit opportunities offered by cloud computing, Internet of Things and machine learning but supports South Africa’s endeavors in 4IR industries.
According to Minister Davies the country is now beginning to reap the rewards of the New Dawn.
“South Africa’s investment mobilisation drive is gaining traction and the latest data from South African Reserve Bank and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) indicates a major increase in Foreign Direct Investments from previous years. We have turned the corner, improving our investment climate and investor facilitation service,” says Davies
Minister Davies highlights that through a One Stop Shop approach, InvestSA can compete amongst the best, is capable today to facilitate large – scale investment projects and has developed a significant investment pipeline.
South Africa was recently awarded the top global award by UNCTAD for its excellence in boosting investment sectors that have social and economic benefits and help countries meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Also we were named as the Global Destination of the Year at the 2018 Global Sourcing Association Awards ceremony alongside the Global Sourcing Summit in Cape Town.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe-Departmental Spokesperson
Tel: (012) 394 1650
Mobile: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
Issued by: The Department of Trade and Industry
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