The department of trade and industry (dti) has, over the last few weeks, completed partnership agreements with all of South Africa’s major banks to reduce the time it takes for a foreign-owned business to begin operating in the country.
This was announced by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, at an American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) Networking Breakfast held in Johannesburg this morning (Tuesday).
He noted that the dti had focused on trying to promote a greater level of investment in the country and had set specific targets for reducing the time it took for regulatory decisions to be made around investments and new businesses in South Africa – including the company registration process.
“What these partnership agreements with the banks now mean is that by using the new Home Affairs identity process, a new business owner can walk into any one of SA’s major banks to, amongst others, register a company, obtain a tax certificate and open a business account,” said Davies. He said the process now took minutes instead of hours.
He pointed to President Zuma’s One Stop Shop (OSS) concept – launched early this year –
where investors will have their new business needs met by simply visiting one office. A division has already been created at the dti to focus on investment promotion, facilitation and aftercare.
He said he was also adding capacity to the facilitation and aftercare unit to create a Clearing House and to roll out one-stop-shops in all provinces. The fully fledged OSS service will be launched later this year but Davies pointed out that facilitation of investment was a priority for government at the “highest level”.
Davies also welcomed the fact that South Africa was a fully fledged partner in the renewed United States African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). “I know the debate is ongoing and I met with US trade representative, Michael Froneman, on the side lines of the World Economic Forum Africa in Kigali, Rwanda last week to discuss the broader issues,” he said.
Davies alluded to the fact there might be some uncertainty around the ongoing positive trade relationship with the US, pending election results in November this year, but said his department was adopting a “wait-and-see” approach.
