Investors see SA with 'fresh eyes'
4 July 20005
International confidence in South Africa has been strengthened by recent political and economic events, according to Wendy Luhabe, chair of the International Marketing Council of South Africa (IMC).
A high-level delegation of South African business leaders, led by the IMC, has just returned from a week-long trip to the UK and Germany - a follow-up to the IMC's Brand South Africa mission to the United States in 2004.
According to the SA Press Association (Sapa), the 21-member team met privately with senior figures leaders in banking and investment circles, and held investment conferences in Frankfurt, Munich and London.
"Investors are looking at South Africa with fresh eyes, and are recognising the wealth of possibilities waiting for them," Luhabe told the SA Press Association.
Sapa reports that the delegation was hosted by the London Stock Exchange, DaimlerChrysler's Stuttgart headquarters, the Bavarian ministry of trade, technology
and transport in Munich, Goldman Sachs and the editorial team of the Economist magazine.
IMC CEO Yvonne Johnston told Sapa that questions from business people in Germany and the UK had focused on black economic empowerment (BEE) and business opportunities in SA.
"We pointed out how BEE had expanded economic participation from all the peoples in South Africa and thus contributed to stability," Johnston told Sapa.
"A small but expanding black middle class is already making an important contribution to economic growth.
"Over the next 10 years, BEE will continue to swell the ranks of the middle class, raise disposable incomes, reduce unemployment and increase domestic savings."
The IMC's latest investment mission was supported by a television and print media ad campaign in European countries.
The 21-member delegation met with business leaders in the UK and Germany, holding investment conferences in Frankfurt, Munich and London. The team included
several prominent South African business leaders, as well as World Cup organiser Danny Jordaan.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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