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South African Ministers attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland from tomorrow, 22 January 2014, must have as their primary goal convincing the world that South Africa is safe and ready for investment.

This is necessary in order to attract more investment to South Africa in order to create more jobs, particularly for the youth.

According to the WEF Global Risk 2014 report, South Africa has the third highest unemployment rate in the world for people between the ages of 15 to 24. The report estimates that more than 50% of young South Africans are unemployed.

Youth unemployment in South Africa is in a state of crisis and must be dealt with as such.
                                          
Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies; National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel; Communications Minister Yunus Carrim; Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom; Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa; Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel; and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan will attend the conference to represent South Africa.

Given our youth unemployment crisis our Ministers cannot rest on their laurels. The WEF’s strategic importance cannot be stressed enough. The conference is attended by the world’s foremost business, political, academic and other leaders. Our Ministers must engage these leaders with the view of attracting investment to our country, in order to create more jobs.

This will require the Ministers to provide clarity on government’s economic vision.

Contradictory visions for South Africa’s economic development espoused in the differences between the market-driven National Development Plan (NDP), the state-centric New Growth Path advocated by the Economic Development Department, populist policy considerations punted as part of ANC’s electoral rhetoric and possible opposition from factions within the ruling alliance makes certainty on South Africa’s economic policy direction elusive.  

Confidence in the South African economy can be reinstated by:

• Providing clarity on the future economic blueprint for South Africa;
• Making a strong commitment to integrated infrastructure and reducing administered prices;
• Committing to dismantling South Africa’s out-dated exchange control regime and the many restrictions and administrative burdens it imposes; undermining our competitiveness as an investment destination;  
• A real commitment to engaging business on policy and legislation that affect the business climate and ensuring that key departments and government entities are more accessible to the business community; and
• Providing clarity with regard to the level of protection to foreign investors which have been materially reduced in the Promotion and Protection of Investment Bill.

A commitment to bring about these above measures will not only help bring about renewed investment in South Africa but would also bring about job growth, that would aid economic development and boost trade.