General Interest - Why South Africa is on a path of economic renewal.

Byline: Cyril Ramaphosa

This year, South Africa will celebrate 25 years of democracy, hold its sixth democratic national election and accelerate the process of economic revival and growth.

Over the last quarter century, the country has made remarkable progress in expanding opportunities for its people, most of whom still live with the effects of the apartheid system. Millions of poor South Africans have been provided with houses, social support, electricity and water. The black middle-class has grown significantly and access to healthcare and education have been expanded.

However, over the last decade, growth has been slow, progress in several areas has stalled and corruption has undermined key public institutions and state-owned enterprises. More South Africans are employed than ever before, yet our levels of inequality remain amongst the highest in the world.

In the last year, we have taken firm measures to correct this. As a result, the country is now emerging from a period of economic stagnation and political uncertainty and has entered a new era of renewal in support of our growth ambitions.

We have a firm foundation on which to build. South Africa's high level of industrialisation, our position as a key manufacturing hub and services destination on the African continent, our strong financial sector are key drawcards for investors.

Furthermore, we are one of the most technologically resourced countries in Africa. We consistently rank highly in terms of internet bandwidth capacity and broadband penetration and have some of the highest mobile phone subscription rates on the continent.

Whether it is in mining, manufacturing, agriculture, clothing and textiles, services, tourism or the ocean economy, South Africa's economy is as diverse as it is sophisticated. It is our ambition to diversify our export basket further and move towards higher productivity and enhanced global competitiveness.

We are aware of the critical policy missteps that led our economy to flounder and the effect that corruption and political patronage has had on public confidence.

But the political and economic landscape of South Africa has vastly improved. A year ago I laid out ambitious plans to turn our economy around, restore business confidence, deal decisively with corruption, and get our people working again.

We have registered significant gains. As part of an ambitious drive to raise $100 billion in new investment in five years, I appointed four investment envoys...