The Acting Head of Invest South Africa, Mr Yunus Hoosen says the week-long investment mission to Japan undertaken by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti), together with the presidential investment envoy, Ms Phumzile Langeni and the Chief Executive Officer of Business Leadership South Africa, Mr Bonang Mohale was successful. The mission was part of government’s investment attraction drive to attract $100 billion worth of investments in five years.
 
“I am pleased that the many Japanese companies that we met are keen to invest in South Africa and others are interested in expanding their investments. We were able to address the concerns of investors about the South African investment environment and policy. We also assured them that the country’s investment policy development process was aimed at bringing policy certainty in order to enhance the country’s investment climate,” says Hoosen.
 
He adds that the Japanese companies were also happy to hear about the investment opportunities, programmes and incentives provided by the government to attract foreign investors to the country. He says of particular interest to the majority of the companies were the Special Economic Zones that offer attractive packages to investors to set up plants in the zones located in various parts of South Africa.
 
He adds that he has been encouraged by the fact that the Japanese companies are looking at South Africa as a key location in Africa and therefore want to expand and increase their investments to service other parts of the continent.
 
“Some of the Japanese companies are already cooperating with us in areas such as supplier development, empowerment initiatives and the automotive sector, asr well as in the development of our energy, Information and Communication Technology, telecommunications, water and rail infrastructure,” says Hoosen.
 
The programme of the mission included an investment seminar that was attended by more than 200 potential Japanese investors.
 
The Acting Head of Invest South Africa, Mr Yunus Hoosen, with the SA delegation and the Japan Oil, Gas, and Metals National Corporation leadership during an investment meeting in Tokyo, Japan.
 

Issued by The Department of Trade and Industry