Thursday January 26, 2012

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Jessica Hannah

Making headlines:

South Africa’s economic policy choices were failing to deliver the economic growth and development required to deal with the country’s high levels of joblessness and poverty, several contributors to an economic outlook dialogue hosted by the Gordon Institute of Business Science argued yesterday. In strident commentary, Efficient Group economist Dawie Roodt asserted that policies designed to stimulate domestic growth were, in fact, achieving the opposite result. Investment Solutions head of market and economic research Chris Hart concurred, attributing much of South Africa’s prevailing sluggish performance to policy decisions that were crimping a strong recovery and a return to higher levels of economic growth.

President Jacob Zuma will market and promote opportunities offered through the New Growth Path at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, this week. The President, who was accompanied by a number of Ministers including Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies, aimed to promote international partnerships driving growth, eradicating poverty, inequality and unemployment. The event, which is being held from January 25 to 29, supplies a platform for leaders to explore emerging conceptual models and solutions, as well as collaborate on risks and opportunities ahead.

A 269% recovery in South Africa’s foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in 2011, which climbed to $4.5-billion from a revised 2010 figure of $1.2-billion, was not sufficient to reverse the decline in overall inflows to Africa as a whole, which fell for the third consecutive year. The recovery in Africa’s largest economy was also not enough to offset a significant decline in FDI flows to North Africa, which experienced material political transformation during the period. In fact, the UN’s Conference on Trade and Development’s ‘Global Investment Trends Monitor’ shows that FDI inflows to Africa, which started declining in 2009, continued to fall last year, albeit at a reduced rate.

Also making headlines:

Acting Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Collins Chabane withdrew the approval for the Integrated Industry Waste Tyre Management Plan of the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa with immediate effect.

And, the world needs at least to double its spending on agricultural research if it is to produce reliable crops and improve the lives of the one billion people who battle starvation every day, Bill Gates said.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.