UN report shows Ramaphosa's FDI "silver bullet" blanking long before Covid-19

Before he took office in early 2018, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa outlined how foreign direct investment would be the cornerstone of his plan to get a stalled economy moving again. Four high profile investment-seeking envoys were dispatched to engage with potential investors around the world. The plan’s success was trumpeted in Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation address and his high-profile annual investment conference. Initially, the plan seemed to be working. Investment flows in the authoritative report compiled by the United Nations showed FDI rebounding from depths plumbed during the business-hostile Zuma Administration. Not surprisingly, Covid-19 Crisis has wiped out those gains – as it has pretty much for almost half of global FDI. But more relevant for South Africa, as UNCTAD’s Richard Bolwijn explains with unburnished frankness in this podcast, the slide had already started long before the virus put SA into lockdown. Biznews.com’s Alec Hogg caught up with Bolwijn to discuss his team’s latest Investment Trends Monitor…