Infrastructure investment under the spotlight
06 Nov 2020
A key priority intervention of South Africa’s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan is promoting aggressive infrastructure investment and supporting its delivery.
President Ramaphosa highlighted this in a speech at the Infrastructure South Africa Project Preparation Roundtable and Marketplace in Midrand.
The president added that this includes large-scale build projects, community and social infrastructure, and infrastructure maintenance.
According to the president, government’s focus is on facilitating job creation and ensuring that local businesses benefit.
The plan is to unlock R1 trillion in infrastructure investment over the next four years.
The president pointed out that a “significant vehicle for achieving this is our national Infrastructure Fund, which has recently been operationalized”.
“It is a blended financing instrument aimed at de-risking projects to make them attractive for private sector participation”, he said.
The president welcomed the participation of multilateral development banks, pension funds and commercial banks in the governance structures of the Infrastructure Fund.
He called for “more coordinated engagement between governments and the private sector and other players in the infrastructure financing space”.
Referring to the recent setting up of Infrastructure South Africa, the president indicated that this will help to streamline the preparation and implementation process.
“It is a step towards creating an enabling environment for financiers and a one-stop shop where projects can be unlocked,” he said.
In a statement last week on the Infrastructure Investment Plan and mass public employment programmes, the public works and infrastructure minister, Patricia De Lille, declared that the Infrastructure Investment Committee, of the Infrastructure Fund, will comprise both public and private sector members.
The Committee, to be chaired by the minister, will ultimately be responsible for the approval or rejection of infrastructure investment proposals made to the Infrastructure Fund.
“We consider it very important that the private sector is involved to ensure both confidence in the market and to draw guidance and expertise from the private sector”, she said.
The minister also announced that final appointments to the Technical Advisory Panel for the Infrastructure Investment Plan will be made soon.
The Panel will consist of technical experts in energy and alternative energy, financial structuring, infrastructure investment and planning, the oceans economy, urban management and green financing.
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