JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, 30 January 2022/ African Media Agency /- The 53rd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, concluded on Friday, 20 January 2023. World leaders and corporate executives expressed hope that the looming recession facing the global economy could be avoided if countries collaborated to boost global trade and investment. …
The delegation was led by Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, who was accompanied by leaders of South Africa’s major corporations operating in various sectors of the economy. The delegation also included Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ebrahim Patel; Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor; and Minister of Human Settlements, Mmamoloko Kubayi.
The South African government is currently implementing structural reforms that have opened the energy sector to private investment to boost energy generation and bring an end to load-shedding that is constraining the economy. The AfCFTA Secretariat and WEF revealed in a report unveiled at this year’s Davos meeting that AfCFTA is projected to create single market that will grow to 1.7 billion people and $6.7 trillion in consumer and business spending by 2030.
“Given that South Africa is the most industrialised and sophisticated economy in Africa, it is well positioned to take advantage of opportunities presented by AfCFTA. The development of the free trade area will require massive investment in logistics and telecommunications infrastructure to reduce the cost of doing business and enable free movement of people, goods and services,” explains Ntombela.
Climate change also took centre stage at WEF with world leaders and business executives committing themselves to supporting the implementation of the Paris Agreement, which calls on all countries to cut carbon emissions to limit global warming to around 1.5 degrees celsius and strive towards attaining net zero emissions by 2050.