The Minister of Finance of the Republic of South Africa Pravin Gordhan and all Ministers present,
The Founder of Bloomberg LP and 108th Mayor of the City of New York, Michael Bloomberg,
Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, Ms Gill Marcus,
Distinguished guests from the financial sector in South Africa and the African continent,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Let me extend a warm welcome to you Mr Bloomberg and your delegation, and all the eminent guests who have come to attend this important conference.

We are truly pleased that you have chosen to host this important meeting here in our country, to focus on Africa’s economic outlook and investment opportunities. 

We welcome, in particular, the focus on Africa and the role that South Africa plays as one of the financial gateways.

We want to continue attracting foreign capital to the continent. Therefore, this conference takes place at the right time. It also takes place during an important year in our country. We mark 20 years of freedom this year. 

It is thus a year of stock-taking and looking ahead.

When we look back, we are convinced that South Africa is a much better place to live in or to visit and do business in now than it was before 1994. 

Over the last 20 years, the first phase of our democratic transition, our people’s dignity has been restored. 

Non-racial majority rule based on one-person, one-vote brought about a government that is based on the will of the people. The lives of millions have improved.

We still face challenges such as unemployment, inequality and poverty. We did not expect to eradicate all these in only 20 years. But we continue to work harder each day to continue building a better life for all.

While we have achieved political freedom for all, our next journey is now to intensify the quest for economic freedom for all, especially the poor. 

We have to free the economy from the shackles of the past, open it up and ensure that all benefit from the robust-ness of the South African economy, through inclusive economic growth.

We have produced our landmark socio-economic blueprint, the National Development Plan, which outlines what type of society we want to be by 2030.

The Plan outlines our plans of transforming the economy and of creating jobs through promoting sectors in which we as a country have a competitive advantage. 

This includes the minerals sector, agro-processing, mining, manufacturing, construction, general infrastructure and the green economy. The Plan also commits the country to invest in a strong network of economic infrastructure designed to support the country’s medium and long-term economic and social objectives. 

We are building roads, bridges, dams, schools, hospitals, universities, colleges and a lot of other infrastructure. South Africa is thus a country at work, for a better life.

We also continue to build the soul of the nation. The journey continues to promote healing, nation building, unity and social solidarity. 

We believe we are making progress. Very few nations have gone through the repression, subjugation and divisions that we went through and emerged to build a new society and a stable democracy in such a short space of time.

It is through the support of development partners like Bloomberg and many of you in this room, that we have been able to achieve our goals. 

Ladies and gentlemen,

You are gathered to discuss prospects in a fast growing continent. You are therefore in the right place, at the right time.

There remains ongoing uncertainty in the global economy, with the Eurozone in particular continuing to struggle. 

In contrast, economic growth across much of the African continent has remained robust, with a number of economies still among the fastest growing in the world. 

Africa’s rise over the past decade has been very real. The size of the African economy has more than tripled since 2000. 

This growth is predicted to continue in the foreseeable future, giving rise to a new Africa paradigm: Africa as the new growth frontier. The South African government and private sector have a critical role to play in this continued growth. 

There is a need to redefine and to strengthen our partnerships on the continent towards realising the vision of an integrated Africa, underpinned by greater levels of intra-Africa trade and even greater levels of intra-Africa investments. 

Intra-Africa investment has been particularly impressive since 2007, growing at more than 32 percent. 

This is more than double non-Africa emerging markets and almost fourfold faster than developed markets. 

Ladies and gentlemen, 

We are happy that South Africa has been at the forefront of growth in intra-Africa investments. This underlies a growing confidence and belief in the future of our own continent. 

Let me emphasise that we cannot expect external partners to appreciate the value of Africa if we as Africans do not. We are therefore working as the African Union, to achieve greater levels of intra-Africa investments. 

It is mine and my government’s belief that Africa’s integration and intra-Africa trade cannot be realised without concerted efforts to invest in Africa’s infrastructure and manufacturing sectors. 

Our other partners on the continent such as Nigeria, Kenya and increasingly Angola, are also taking up the cause of investing on the African continent. Intra-Africa investments should define the new Africa paradigm. 

To this end, I am pleased to inform the conference that since 2007, there has been a compound growth of 57% in South Africa-originated foreign direct investment projects into the rest of Africa. South Africa was the single largest FDI investor in the rest of Africa in 2012, with cumulative FDI jobs created standing at more than forty five thousand to date. 

Lack of access to trade-enabling infrastructure on our continent is a fundamental challenge. 

We discussed this matter at length again at the African Union summit in Ethiopia this past weekend. We recommitted ourselves as African heads of state to continue building cross-border infrastructure, to unlock growth and development in our continent.

In addition to a focus on trade-enabling infrastructure, we are intensifying our continental integration efforts through the negotiation of the Tri-Partite Free Trade Agreement. 

We have made considerable progress in the negotiations which aim to integrate 26 countries of Eastern and Southern Africa. This involves a population of nearly 600 million people and a combined GDP of one trillion US dollars.

This market scale could launch a sizeable part of the continent onto a new developmental trajectory. 

What is worth noting is that the free trade area will form the basis for an Africa-wide Free Trade Agreement, which could create a single market of two point six trillion US dollars and a population of over 1 billion people.

Therefore, Africa can only move forward. The prospects are good and the returns promise to be worth the while of investors who wish to grab this opportunity.

To sum it all up, our ‘development integration’ approach on the continent rests on the following three pillars: Market Integration, Infrastructure Development and Continental Industrialisation. 

It is our firm belief that this approach will unlock a large number of investment opportunities on the continent and set us on a prosperous path to growth.

The regional economic communities, including our own, the Southern African Development Community, are seized with promoting the three pillars and to work much closer together.
As said, potential investors are in the right continent at the right time.

Ladies and gentlemen,

In this year of our 20th anniversary of freedom, allow me to thank all of you for your support during the time of our deepest sorrow, the passing of our Former President Nelson Mandela in December.

South Africa and Africa as a whole, were able to handle that monumental loss because of the overwhelming support from the world. We thank you most sincerely.

We assure you that we will continue working hard to ensure that we take Madiba’s legacy forward, and build a truly united, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa.

I wish you successful deliberations.

I thank you.