Madeleine Wackernagel
Thabo Mbeki and his team returned tired but triumphant from the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Wednesday. The deputy president was well-received, with fund managers clamouring to get a slice of the most popular emerging markets cake.
While nothing concrete in the form of rands and cents came out of the five-day conference of business and political leaders, interest was substantial, says Moss Ngoasheng, Mbekis economic adviser. South Africa is already a popular haven for foreign investment portfolios; the South African contingents task was to convince the waverers and by the governments accounts, at least, they rose to the occasion admirably.
Potential foreign investors cited crime and the insecurity surrounding privatisation as their chief concerns. Reassuringly, however, those companies already operating in South Africa saw crime as separate from political instability in sharp contrast to 18 months ago. Criminal violence was thus considered a different issue requiring different solutions although there is no room for complacency.
Privatisation was also no longer a burning issue: the international investment community was not insisting on the wholesale disposal of state assets but acknowledged that the equity partnership route favoured by government suited South Africas development needs. Nor was there evidence of impatience over exchange controls, said Ngoasheng: the commitment had been made and it was only a matter of time before the government felt the climate was right to go ahead.
It seemed there was no stopping South Africa. Jurgen Schrempp, head of daimler-Benz in Germany, predicted that South Africa could join the ranks of the Asian tigers in a few years, as long as the commitment to stable economic policies was upheld. Ngoasheng admits even he was taken aback at such high praise.