Research firm Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) has published its latest direct investment tracker, detailing the major developments in the pipeline for South Africa.
The Q1 tracker shows the total investment value from projects is R96.1 billion, with several new developments announced at the 2022 Investment Conference.
The fourth South African Investment Conference took place in March 2022, having been postponed in 2021. It garnered 80 pledges from foreign and local companies, totalling approximately R332 billion. Foreign investments were identified from 34 companies with commitments valued at just over R95 billion.
As usual with this kind of investment conference, some of the pledges represent projects already in the pipeline, others are updates of existing projects, or they blend new and existing commitments, TIPS said.
Some of the investments announced by foreign companies at the 2022 Investment Conference include:
TIPS’ data shows investment remained 6% below pre-pandemic levels, despite some recovery from the middle of 2021. It rose 4.1% in the first quarter of 2022, with a 4.9% increase in government investment and 4.1% in private investment, which is far larger. State-owned corporations cut their investment by 1.1%, however
“Growth in total investment revived in the six months to March 2022, after plateauing in the first half of 2021. Private investment grew 4,1% in the first quarter of 2022, around the same as in the fourth quarter of 2021 (in seasonally adjusted terms).
“Despite the relatively rapid growth over these two quarters, it remains 7% lower than before the pandemic due to the exceptionally steep decline in the second quarter of 2020.”
The group noted general government investment increased by 5%, partially reversing the 7% fall in the previous quarter. As a result, general government investment exceeded its pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of 2022. Investment by state-owned companies continued to stagnate, however, and now lags 7% behind pre-pandemic levels.
“Investment climbed from 13.0% of the GDP in mid-2021 to 13.7% in the first quarter of 2022, mostly because of the uptick in private investment. It remains far below the level required to drive rapid growth and industrialisation, however.”