Africa, and more specifically South Africa, is a vital destination for investment from European countries, delegates were told at the eleventh The European House Ambrosetti (TEHA) CEO Dialogue on Southern Africa, held on November 14.

“We keep saying, and we believe, that South Africa is the economic hub of the continent, and its best investment destination. We believe so. We want to be in this fantastic country and region forever,” TEHA Africa CEO Pietro Mininni said in the opening address.

TEHA CEO and managing partner Valerio de Molli informed that the Global Attractiveness Index (GAI) Africa showed that South Africa was the top destination for investment, up from second place last year.

The Index, launched in 2013, is specifically designed to assess economic attractiveness in Africa.

It leverages a repository with ten-million data points to rank 55 African countries and its methodology combines forward- and backward-looking analysis.

Since the TEHA CEO Dialogue started in 2014, Italy’s foreign direct investment to South African Development Community (SADC) countries and towards South Africa had more than tripled, with South Africa’s share accounting for two-thirds of the current €2.2-billion, De Molli said.

“Development initiatives and cooperation agreements will further strengthen the trade and investment relations between Africa, Europe and Italy.”

The summit is aimed at strengthening strategic relationships, fostering in-depth interaction among peers and government officials and promoting joint growth and investment opportunities.

Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi said that the EU, among South Africa’s largest trading partners, was a great source of funding and had created some 16 500 jobs in Gauteng already, with almost R4-trillion in trade between the two regions since 2018.

“Each job represents a family,” he highlighted.

Among the topics covered on the day were the African geopolitical, business and investment outlook, regional food supply chain in SADC, critical raw materials and new industrialisation, as well as CEOs’ views on African business.

Mininni said the programme was addressing the region’s and continent’s most pressing challenges.