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Speaker 1: Well, next week our government hosting the sixth investor conference.

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Speaker 1: People from thirty one countries. Are you to come here

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Speaker 1: and hopefully we'll be pledging money that will be invested

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Speaker 1: in our economy. The Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition

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Speaker 1: is passed down and please to tell you he's here

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Speaker 1: to talk to you now. Minister. Good evening, Good to

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Speaker 1: talk to you again and thank you for your time.

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Speaker 1: What are you aiming to do at this conference?

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Speaker 2: Good evening, Steven, and thank you very much. Just to

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Speaker 2: say that by the last count it to us more

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Speaker 2: than for the countries that are now confirmed attendance at

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Speaker 2: the investment conference. And I'd like to say still county,

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Speaker 2: because there are some including from the Middle East, that

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Speaker 2: have sawn an interesting attending the conference and are saying

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Speaker 2: that we're gone their own logistics. But of course I

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Speaker 2: answertain times and that you can't. Coming back to the

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Speaker 2: question that you raise in Stephen, this is an investment

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Speaker 2: conference that there has been taking place for some time.

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Speaker 2: Of course, the last iteration of the conference was in

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, and we've had to resume the conference

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Speaker 2: to be able to mobilize investors to focus in South

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Speaker 2: Africa as an investment destination. It is looking at both

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Speaker 2: investors from a country point of view. So we're looking

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Speaker 2: at South African investors that are looking at great opportunities

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Speaker 2: to invest in projects in the country, to expand their

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Speaker 2: operations and the support that come to be able to

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Speaker 2: give in that RecA but whilst looking at a number

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Speaker 2: of international investors that are looking at South Africa as

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Speaker 2: an investment testination, and I should say we are a

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Speaker 2: significantly different investment proposition than at the last conference, partly

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Speaker 2: of course the recent events in the Middle East. We

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Speaker 2: are certainly a country that has turned the corner. We've

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Speaker 2: addressed our electricity challenges to sit pretty much down the

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Speaker 2: way in addressing the logistics challenges that have been major

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Speaker 2: impediments two investments in the country, and we're seeing great

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Speaker 2: epithite by investors to come to the country.

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Speaker 1: So on the one side, you could say, well, this

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Speaker 1: is a very difficult time to have an investment conference.

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Speaker 1: The other side, counterintuitively, you could say this is the

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Speaker 1: best possible time because it reminds you that we have

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Speaker 1: a growth story while the rest of the world is

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Speaker 1: suddenly in a very difficult spot.

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Speaker 2: And in fact we are in a position where, when

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Speaker 2: you're talking logistics, for example, the reality is that most

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Speaker 2: of the ships now have to move around the Cape

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Speaker 2: of Good Hope. That's the question about the sort of

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Speaker 2: support that would be required from US as a country

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Speaker 2: from a logistics point of view, from the point of

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Speaker 2: view of supply chain, supply chains as people reorganize their

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Speaker 2: supply chain. So yes, I think that there could be

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Speaker 2: opportunities that South Africans and investors that come into the

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Speaker 2: country can take advant So, of course it's not something

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Speaker 2: that you ever wished on any ported to go through

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Speaker 2: a war. But the reality is that we are a

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Speaker 2: different proposition right now, in a stable environment, in a

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Speaker 2: stable governance environment, and in a country that has literally

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Speaker 2: turned the corner from most of the indicators.

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Speaker 1: We've seen conferences like this before, as you say, people

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Speaker 1: pledged money. Have we seen the follow through? Have we

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Speaker 1: seen a change in our economy as a result of

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Speaker 1: the previous conferences? And I think for a lot of

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Speaker 1: people it's I mean, it's one thing to sort of

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Speaker 1: see the footage, to hear from you, to see people come,

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Speaker 1: but then they sort of might feel after as well.

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Speaker 1: Actually I don't see anything changing.

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Speaker 2: Well, first, I should say that from the commitments that

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Speaker 2: have been made into investment conferences, a lot of these

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Speaker 2: have been translated into actual practical projects on the account.

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Speaker 2: In fact, what they represent of those commitments have been

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Speaker 2: achieved twenty seven percent under construction and about thirteen percent

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Speaker 2: at different stages of project preparation. So we can say

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Speaker 2: that from the first investment drive that was able to

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Speaker 2: achieve a one point five trillion set of investment commitments,

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Speaker 2: we're seeing those translating into actual projects on the ground.

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Speaker 2: Going forward, of course, we are looking at the situation

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Speaker 2: where one we can increase the threshold over a medium

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Speaker 2: time period of a five year periods to a target

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Speaker 2: of two trillion ran of investments. We've been working a

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Speaker 2: lot on mobilizing investors across different parts of the world

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Speaker 2: and unlooking different types of opportunities for investors in the country.

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Speaker 2: You would know that we announced that, for example, we

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Speaker 2: have an agreement with the European Union and what is

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Speaker 2: the in trade and investment partnership. We're now working on

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Speaker 2: trans laying the commitment of twelve billion euro into actual

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Speaker 2: practical projects on the ground, and there's a pipeline of

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Speaker 2: projects that we're discussing with the Europeans. We've been talking

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Speaker 2: to the Japanese at the back of the previous conference

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Speaker 2: attended by the President, where we spoke about a number

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Speaker 2: of initiatives about potential investments, and there we've been in

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Speaker 2: discussions with them in terms of how we translate those

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Speaker 2: commitments into actual practical investments. So in many ways, when

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Speaker 2: we make those announcements of our country agreements, it is

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Speaker 2: in the follow through. It is in saying you've committed

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Speaker 2: to come to the country to invest in energy technologies,

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Speaker 2: on bettery electric technologies, on electric vehicle technologies. Now we

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Speaker 2: are translating those into practical projects located in a particular space,

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Speaker 2: fund it in a particular way.

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Speaker 1: Minister or any of the investors come in next week

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Speaker 1: from the United States.

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Speaker 2: Yes, we are expecting investors from the United States. And

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Speaker 2: I should say that we've been in continuous discussions with

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Speaker 2: the United States. We've been able to addrust the this

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Speaker 2: Chamber of Commerce post localub A, trusting this chamber in

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Speaker 2: the US. In fact, the US Chamber of Commerce will

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Speaker 2: be at the investment conference themselves, and I should say

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Speaker 2: they're also at the mining in Davas. So there's great

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Speaker 2: appetite even in the USS look at South Africa as

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Speaker 2: an investment destination.

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Speaker 1: We know that the Trump administration has been attacking black

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Speaker 1: based black economic empowerment. Do the US Chamber of commers

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Speaker 1: to US business people have the same view of BEE

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Speaker 1: that Trump does?

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Speaker 2: You know? In reality, the United States has experienced black

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Speaker 2: economic empowerment for much longer than we have as a country.

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Speaker 2: In fact, there are many interesting and good place that

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Speaker 2: is about the implementation of Do they have been there

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Speaker 2: the program which has been discontinued by the current regime,

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Speaker 2: but many countries continue to implement DEERI or other Many

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Speaker 2: companies continue to implement the YEAI initiative. Send many of

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Speaker 2: them do understand the regulation and the legislative framework.

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Speaker 1: And the policy of BEE. I mean generally speaking, Minister,

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Speaker 1: if I may, We've seen some parts, We've seen the

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Speaker 1: Trump administration attacking it also consistently some parts of our society.

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Speaker 1: Do you believe it's working as it is? Or do

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Speaker 1: you think? And I know there are a few tweaks,

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Speaker 1: but should they be a much bigger reform of BEE?

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Speaker 2: Well? I think that the President did announce and the

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Speaker 2: tip the President said so last recons so that we

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Speaker 2: will be initiating a process of a comprehensive review of

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Speaker 2: the transformation architecture in the country to ensure that it's

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Speaker 2: able to achieve its objectives at a much faster pace

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Speaker 2: and make greater impact. But I think it would be

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Speaker 2: inappropriate d even suggest that there hasn't been progress. I mean,

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Speaker 2: if you look at what constitutes broad based political and compartment,

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Speaker 2: and you look at the facets of broad based politic

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Speaker 2: economic compartment, you start with, let's say the employment equity component.

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Speaker 2: It is the number of black people that participate in

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Speaker 2: management structures as a result of policies that program black

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Speaker 2: people to participate in professional and management components in different organizations.

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Speaker 2: And it's in a huge interest of the number of

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Speaker 2: black people. It is about creating skills amongst people historically

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Speaker 2: disadvantaged and massive skills programs. Now you know when people

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Speaker 2: sit possibly and say I participate in a skills program

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Speaker 2: funded by this company. You don't always talk pretest but

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Speaker 2: PE because it's not written PE. But this is the

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Speaker 2: implementation of policy. It is about participation in equity, of course,

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Speaker 2: which is what most people focused on, but it's also

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Speaker 2: about enterprise and supply development. I always say to people,

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Speaker 2: you know, somebody could be in Uma Langa in a

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Speaker 2: mind providing a particular service, and that could be logistics services.

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Speaker 2: You could be providing logistics to the company. And this

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Speaker 2: is as a result of broad based economic compartment policies

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Speaker 2: that these conduits of access have been created. So when

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Speaker 2: you're talking about pe and one to review it, look

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Speaker 2: at it comprehensively and say wherever we as a country

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Speaker 2: before this laws and where are we as a country today.

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Speaker 2: I certainly don't doubt that we need to do a

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Speaker 2: lot more to create a more equitable South Africa. And

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Speaker 2: I think it isn't the best interest of this country

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Speaker 2: driving a society that is fully non racial, not on

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Speaker 2: the basis of only our participation in elections and other events,

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Speaker 2: but because we have equitable access to opportunity in this country.

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Speaker 2: We have equitable access to the ability to where participate

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Speaker 2: in the economy too. But is to create our own

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Speaker 2: enterprises to be networked into the system of economic activity.

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Speaker 2: But I think that's the country we should always all

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Speaker 2: of us aspire to us where we get to a

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Speaker 2: point where race is not a factor, not because we're

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Speaker 2: trying to proceed away, but because we've got into a

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Speaker 2: point where comfortably the country is saying we have overcome

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Speaker 2: the impact of our past and including a new society altogether.

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Speaker 1: Minister, thank you very much indeed for your time Parks House,

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Speaker 1: the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Competition on The Money

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Speaker 1: Show tonight