Speaking on the sidelines of the SA-France Investment Conference, Mashatile outlined Pretoria’s vision for enhanced collaboration in key sectors, including infrastructure development, science and technology, innovation, and education.

The conference, designed to bolster investment opportunities, comes as SA seeks to attract greater foreign direct investment from European partners.

Since the inaugural Presidential Investment Conference in 2018, French companies have committed more than $3.89 billion to various projects in SA, with many either completed or currently being implemented.  

Mashatile emphasised that the government’s proactive approach is helping to create momentum for business engagement.  

"We as government are here, myself and the ministers and deputy ministers, to ensure we create momentum for business people. They can see that the government is quite serious about this," he stated.  

He further proposed that the investment conference should not be a one-off engagement but rather an ongoing platform to facilitate long-term partnerships.  

"I made a proposal that this should not be a once-off thing, that we should be able to meet again. So the suggestion is that, once we've finalised things, it will probably become a bi-annual investment conference," he added.  

--SABC/ChannelAfrica-