France remains committed to deepening ties with SA and an additional R14bn in investments is on the way from French companies this year, the country’s foreign trade and economic attractiveness minister, Franck Riester, said on Tuesday.
The additional investments are on top of the R20bn pledged by a collection of French firms at last year’s SA investment conference across a range of sectors including energy, tourism and manufacturing.
The fresh investments include transactions by industrial gas company Air Liquide, which recently bought the world’s largest oxygen production site from Sasol, as well as the take-up of a stake by French broadcaster Canal+, a subsidiary of media conglomerate Vivendi, in MultiChoice.
The deals — which will be announced at the 2020 investment conference scheduled for later in November — are also likely to include French oil and gas multinational Total’s second-largest gas find off SA’s coastline at its Luiperd well, Riester told journalists during his visit to SA.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration has targeted R1.2-trillion in foreign direct investment to be attracted over five years, as a means to boost growth and create jobs. But the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which the SA Reserve Bank expects to shrink the economy 8.2%, has prompted many companies to re-evaluate expansion plans, as the crisis takes its toll on bottom lines.
However, French firms, Riester said, stand ready to participate in SA’s economic reconstruction and recovery plan announced recently. “Our companies are ready to answer the tenders, and we are ready to participate either in financing or expertise.”
France has been hit by a resurgence of Covid-19 infections, forcing President Emmanuel Macron to announce a second round of restrictions last week, after the country's first lockdown that was introduced in March.
Nevertheless, Riester said, various support measures from the French government, aimed at helping the economy and French companies survive the crisis, should ensure that they will still have the capacity “to continue to investing either in France or abroad”.
“We are convinced that our economy needs not only to develop in France but also abroad,” he said.
Bilateral trade between SA and France amounts to about €3bn a year (R56bn) and French companies in SA support about 65,000 jobs.
Riester is the first foreign minister to visit SA after the hard lockdown was lifted. He met with his local counterpart, trade, industry & competition minister Ebrahim Patel, and deputy international relations & co-operation minister Alvin Botes.
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