JOHANNESBURG, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- While South Africa's economic growth is stagnant and its gross domestic product (GDP) projected to grow at 1 percent in 2019, the upcoming investment conference is expected to play a role in revitalizing growth, according to an analyst.
Both local and international investors will gather in Johannesburg at the second South African Investment Conference in an effort to explore investment opportunities in November.
"The conference is exceptionally important because we need to get our GDP growing. We must never forget that we have a higher population growth so with our population growth at around 1.1 percent per annum our GDP must at least grow at the same rate," Prof Jannie Rossouw, Head of School of Economic and Business Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, told Xinhua.
The conference is part of President Cyril Ramaphosa's bid to raise 1.2 trillion rand (about 82 billion U.S. dollars) in new investments by 2023. At the inaugural conference last year, 300 billion rand was committed by investors.
Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel on Tuesday said this year's conference takes place under the theme of "Accelerating Economic Growth by Building Partnerships" and would be used to position South Africa as an investment destination and trading partner in Africa.
"South Africa is open for business, investment and growth. In the last year since the first conference, government has worked to improve the business and investment environment," he said, adding this was a good opportunity for government, local and international investors to partner on innovative projects.
