Africa's top foreign investor

South Africa is the top foreign investor in Africa and the region's "most attractive country" for investment, according to an annual report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The country accounted for 60 percent of Africa's Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) outflows for 2003, according to UNCTAD's World Investment Report for 2004, and ranked ninth in terms of FDI outflow from developing countries.

Seven South African companies are the only ones on the continent that feature among UNCTAD's top 50 transnational companies (TNCs) based in developing countries. The list includes paper manufacturer Sappi, petrochemical company Sasol, telcommunications company MTN, and mining giant AngloGold.

The report noted the liberalisation of South Africa's regulatory regime and trade and exchange controls, and a technological advantage over other African firms as factors that had driven the country's outward FDI.

Many South African firms were expanding regionally and had become world players, said the report. AngloGold was now the world's largest gold producer, after acquiring Ghana's Ashanti gold mine last year; SABMiller was now among the world's biggest breweries, controlling more than 160 factories in 40 countries.

In terms of inward investment, South Africa had benefited to the tune of just under a billion dollars, and FDI in telecommunications and information technology had overtaken mining and extraction.