South Africa launches third phase of cooperation with business community to focus on economic growth and employment

South Africa has experienced stagnant economic growth and high unemployment in the past 10 years. The government has cooperated with the business community twice to carry out reforms since 2023. This time it announced the third phase goal of economic growth reaching 3% by 2030, creating one million jobs, and attracting mining investment equivalent to NT$100 billion.

Local media News24 reported yesterday that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the launch of the third phase of cooperation with private enterprises, with more than 30 CEOs of major companies as initiators, such as Nedbank CEO Jason Quinn, Toyota Motor CEO Andrew Kirby, etc., leading the promotion of the plan, focusing on three major goals: promoting economic growth, creating job opportunities, and enhancing investor confidence.

According to reports, Business for South Africa raised 1 billion South African rand (approximately NT$1.99 billion) and invited 725 experts covering various industries such as energy and logistics to assist government departments in improving operations. The goals include attracting 50 billion rand in mining investment, increasing 1.35 million tourists, solving youth unemployment, and combating crime and corruption.

Ramaphosa said that the first two stages of cooperation with enterprises pursue stability and reform respectively, while the third stage aims to achieve growth and focus on the development of mining, tourism, infrastructure, agriculture and other industries that can attract investment, drive the economy and increase employment. It is expected to increase the economic growth rate to 3% in 2030 and create 1 million jobs.

In an interview with Newzroom Afrika, Martin Kingston, CEO of the South African branch of Rothschild & Co. and chairman of the South African Federation of Enterprises, pointed out that the business community has communicated with senior government officials and technical teams to identify areas that need to be improved. Once the results are demonstrated, it will help gain the trust of investors and attract domestic and foreign funds.

He further stated that in order to attract funds, the high crime rate and corruption problems must first be solved as soon as possible. The companies in this plan must also adhere to their responsibilities and accept supervision, so as to gain the trust of investors.

Secondly, we must start to rectify the financial deficit and outdated infrastructure of Johannesburg City. Johannesburg has seriously hindered the national economic growth. Its GDP accounts for 17% of the country's GDP and 85% of corporate headquarters are located here. Johannesburg's success or failure is related to the national economic growth.

The South African government and business community will begin the first phase of cooperation in 2023, with the goal of stabilizing the situation and solving major national issues, including state-owned power company Eskom and energy sector operations, national transportation group Transnet and logistics operations, as well as crime and corruption. Phase 2 will begin in 2024, focusing on reforming companies in the key areas above, and finally successfully removed South Africa from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) gray list to prevent money laundering.