President Cyril Ramaphosa says the third annual South Africa Investment Conference secured more than R109-billion of investment.

He says the R109.6-billion was pledged by 50 companies at the event.

Ramaphosa welcomed the news, saying it puts the country back on track to secure the ambitious R1.5-trillion target, set for five years.

The President says the latest investment commitments, bring the total value of pledges, made since 2018, to R773.6-billion.

He says the time has come to move away from promises, and to start realizing investment-commitments.

He says the country’s mining-sector has been the biggest beneficiary of investments, pledged at the country’s first two Investment Conferences.

Ramaphosa says other sectors also greatly benefited from the more than R660-billion in investments, pledged since 2018.

Ramaphosa says that despite the covid-19 pandemic, there is still a strong appetite for investment in the South African economy.

He again congratulated the Aspen pharmaceutical company, for being at the forefront of the future-supply of a covid-19 vaccine.

He says the news bodes well for the country’s economy.

He again encouraged foreign-investors and countries to now increase their trade with African countries, to extract maximum benefit from the African Continental Free Trade Area, which will come into operation in January.

He says 30 African nations have signed up for this trade agreement.

In his closing remarks, President @CyrilRamaphosa announces that we are firmly on track to meet our five-year target of R1,2 trillion. "In the 3rd year of #SAIC, we record R773,6 billion of commitments made over the last three years, including today.#InvestSA #SAIC2020 pic.twitter.com/8oWoLs4pRz

— SAInvestmentConference (@SAInvestmentCo) November 18, 2020

South Africa Investment Conference – Project Announcements 2020 #SAIC2020 #InvestSA pic.twitter.com/HLZxCb6Cfo

— Presidency | South Africa (@PresidencyZA) November 19, 2020