Now it’s time to walk the talk with ratings agencies: Gordhan

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has unpacked the huge challenge that South Africa faces in the coming months to convince ratings agencies that the country's economy is still a favourable investment destination.

Speaking at the NedGroup Investment Summit in Sandton‚ Gordhan said labour‚ government and the private sector had worked tirelessly in the first half of the year to prevent the country from being downgraded to junk status.

Representatives from labour federations‚ business leaders and government flew to London‚ Boston and New York‚ meeting 265 individuals who are investing in South Africa to tell them “the same South African Story”.

But things had to be done differently in the second half to retain the investment outlook of the country's economy‚ he said.

“Now we have to follow that with some action. We have a working group on investment that has met [made up of] about 100 chief executives in eight different sectors of the economy. They are making their own progress‚” said Gordhan.

“We will evaluate that progress and see how that can be converted into concrete investment in this country.”

Gordhan said the ratings agencies would need to get evidence that the commitments made by South Africa in the first half of 2016 have resulted in action for them not to downgrade the country's credit rating.

“[They want to know] what are the milestones you want to achieve. If you tell us the milestones‚ we know how to monitor whether you are delivering on what you said you would do as a country. [The ratings agencies] are going to monitor you [South Africa]; whether or not this is just another plan that South Africans are famous for producing‚ or are you actually delivering on the plans. We have taken that challenge as government‚ business and labour‚” he added.

He further told investment leaders that government had begun programmes to deal with youth unemployment‚ training and funding of small businesses.