PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa says investors are increasingly seeing the opportunities that exist in Limpopo Province, which is key to regional integration within SADC.
Ramaphosa delivered the keynote address at the provincial investment conference on Wednesday.
In a pre-recorded speech for the conference, Ramaphosa said government has also created conditions for a rapid increase in generating capacity through opening further bid windows for the renewable energy programme and increasing the licensing threshold for embedded generation projects to 100 MW.
“This includes the restructuring of Eskom into separate entities for generation, transmission and distribution. This will stabilise the company’s financial position and improve the performance of Eskom’s power plants,” he said.
Ramaphosa said government is working to improve the investment climate and reduce the cost of doing business.
“We are undertaking far-reaching structural reforms in the energy, transport and water sectors, all of which are important for the industries with the highest potential for growth in Limpopo,” Ramaphosa said.
The conference last took place in 2002.
It forms part of the national investment conference launched in 2018 to attract foreign and domestic investment of over a R1 trillion over five years.
The president highlighted that Limpopo is ready to create both local and foreign partnerships.
Ramaphosa said investing in Limpopo was very strategic because the province shared borders with three of South Africa’s neighbouring countries: Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
“Investing in Limpopo is therefore very strategic because the province shares borders with three of our neighbouring countries – Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. This means that the province is positioned as a gateway to a potential market of 300 million people just in the Southern African Development Community region,” Ramaphosa said.
“We are in the process of establishing a National Water Resource Infrastructure Agency.”
“We are also increasing capital investment in our ports and freight rail infrastructure, and are making progress in increasing the efficiency and competitiveness of our ports.”
“Work is underway to enable greater private sector participation in the country’s rail and port infrastructure while maintaining public ownership of these valuable national assets.”
“Our National Infrastructure Plan aims to support the integration of African economies and the development of intra-Africa regional value chains.”
- Inside Politics
