South Africa's most serious problem is how to create 500 000 jobs every year, Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel said on Thursday.

"We face our most serious contemporary challenge of how to create half-a-million jobs every year over a sustainable period in order to bring the jobless rate down dramatically," he said at a South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) gala dinner in Sandton, Johannesburg.

"How to ensure that those jobs are decent job opportunities so that we address related problems of inequality and poverty as we build a shared future," he said.

"To achieve this aim means we need to redirect growth... .We need to make South Africa a destination of choice for new productive investment for both our companies and for foreign investors."

This required removing obstacles to growth, improving infrastructure and strengthening the skills base.

Patel said investors looked for opportunities to make a profit, but this also meant they were looking for stability, which required social and economic development that embraced all South Africans.

"It is this need that will shape our economic strategies," Patel said.

Sacci, which introduced its newly-appointed president Chose Choeu at the event, presented Zinhle Sokhela of Pietermaritzburg the Businesswoman of the Year Award.

The Chamber Award went to Middelburg Chambers represented by Anna-Marth Ott, while the Trade Survey Award went to the Protea Landmark Hotel in Bloemfontein.