![[South Africa] Government launches Gauteng InvestSA One Stop Shop to bolster service delivery](Gauteng InvestSA One Stop Shop.jpg)
[South Africa] Government launches Gauteng InvestSA One Stop Shop to bolster service delivery
South Africa’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies and Gauteng Premier, Mr David Makhura have launched the Gauteng InvestSA One Stop Shop (OSS) in Sandton.
The objective of the provincial InvestSA OSS is to provide professional service to all investors through specialist advisory, reduce regulatory inefficiencies, and reduce red tape for investors looking to invest in Gauteng.
Speaking at the launch, Minister Davies said InvestSA Gauteng One Stop Shop (OSS) is part of a Presidential priority to improve South Africa’s service delivery to all investors. He said the launch is a partnership from national government into the provinces and an excellent model of intergovernmental collaboration between the 3 spheres of government.
“Since we launched the National One Stop Shop in March 2017, we have hosted 624 investor consultations. As per these interactions 21 regulatory issues were escalated to the relevant departments and subsequently unblocked. This facilitation and aftercare service has contributed to operationalising, expansion and committed investments,” said Davies.
He said the achievement is a significant milestone in Government and how the country is able to provide a quality service to the private sector.
“Boosting investor confidence is critical to positioning South Africa as a premium destination for foreign direct investment. InvestSA is our investment brand identity that we will develop domestically and internationally,” he said.
Davies added that as part of continuous improvement, InvestSA will coordinate inter-governmentally with the World Bank on a reform program over a period of 2 to 4 years to improve South Africa’s Ease of Doing Business Rankings.
He said South Africa needs to drastically improve on its rankings from 82 on the ease of doing business indicators. This will be the focus over the next 2 years.
Gauteng Premier, Mr David Makhura said the province is not only home to multinationals that have invested in South Africa but also a gateway for such companies to invest in the rest of Africa. Makhura expressed his satisfaction with national government in terms of the partnership and value-added product offerings that the One Stop Shop will offer investors.
“The task of countries that want to be competitive investment destinations is to make it easy for business to set up shop and remove all hindrances that may drive investors away. We are responding to this with the launch of InvestSA Gauteng,” said Makhura.
Makhura added that the province will not only want to attract investment but also want to be able to service business in addressing challenges such as the availability of water and electricity among others.
Key departments such as Department of Home Affairs, Labour, Environmental Affairs, Trade and Industry agencies such as Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission (CIPC), South African Revenue Service (SARS), Visa Facilitation Service (VFS), and Eskom amongst others will be available at the InvestSA Gauteng OSS.
The launch of the Gauteng InvestSA One Stop Shop was amongst others attended by the United Kingdom Minister of State for Trade Policy Greg Hand, South African Ministers, Diplomats, investors and senior government officials.
