/ 30 May 2006

SA companies double their business in Africa

The number of South African companies doing business in Africa has more than doubled since 1994, Minster of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told MPs on Monday.

Speaking in her Budget vote in the National Assembly, she noted that the figures were drawn from Who Owns Whom and the South African Institute of International Affairs.

“An analysis of South African investments showed that 232 South African investments employed a total of 71 874 people — of these, 69 617 are drawn from the local population (in other African countries) and 2 257 are South African.”

South Africa recognises that “for us to reach our full potential the continent should also reach its full economic potential”. At the same time, efforts in peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction will only be sustainable if there is “a conscious effort to improve the economic well-being of countries that have come out of conflict”.

Recent international reports registered that South Africa is “the greatest contributor” of foreign direct investment to the rest of the continent, she reported.

But she added that it is also key that “our engagement with the continent be aimed at forging true partnerships for sustainable development”.

Economic investment has to be coupled with social and economic development, she said. — I-Net Bridge